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LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
GENERAL  LIBRARY,  BERKELEY 


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XTbe  Ifnteinational 


XTbeolooical  Xibrar^. 


EDITORS'    PREFACE. 

Theology  has  made  great  and  rapid  advances  in  recent 
years.  New  lines  of  investigation  have  been  opened  up, 
fresh  light  has  been  cast  upon  many  subjects  of  the  deepest 
interest,  and  the  historical  method  has  been  applied  with 
important  results.  This  has  prepared  the  way  for  a  Library 
of  Theological  Science,  and  has  created  the  demand  for  it. 
It  has  also  made  it  at  once  opportune  and  practicable  now 
to  secure  the  services  of  specialists  in  the  different  depart- 
ments of  Theology,  and  to  associate  them  in  an  enterprise 
which  will  furnish  a  record  of  Theological  inquiry  up  to 
date. 

This  Library  is  designed  to  cover  the  whole  field  of  Chris- 
tian Theology.  Each  volume  is  to  be  complete  in  itself, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  it  will  form  part  of  a  carefully 
planned  whole.  One  of  the  Editors  is  to  prepare  a  volume 
of  Theological  Encyclopaedia  which  will  give  the  history 
and  literature  of  each  department,  as  well  as  of  Theology 
as  a  whole. 

The  Library  is  intended  to  form  a  series  of  Text-Books 
for  Students  of  Theology. 

The  Authors,  therefore,  aim  at  conciseness  and  compact- 
ness of  statement.     At  the  same  time,  they  have  in  view 


editors'  preface. 

that  large  and  increasing  class  of  students,  in  other  depart- 
ments of  inquiry,  who  desire  to  have  a  systematic  and  thor- 
ough exposition  of  Theological  Science.  Teclinical  matters 
will  therefore  be  thrown  into  the  form  of  notes,  and  the 
text  will  be  made  as  readable  and  attractive  as  possible. 

The  Library  is  international  and  interconfessional.  It 
will  be  conducted  in  a  catholic  spirit,  and  in  the  interests 
of  Theology  as  a  science. 

Its  aim  will  be  to  give  full  and  impartial  statements  both 
of  the  results  of  Theological  Science  and  of  the  questions 
which  are  still  at  issue  in  the  different  departments. 

The  Authors  will  be  scholars  of  recognized  reputation  in 
the  several  branches  of  study  assigned  to  them.  They  will 
be  associated  with  each  other  and  with  the  Editors  in  the 
efifort  to  provide  a  series  of  volumes  which  may  adequately 
represent  the  present  condition  of  investigation,  and  indi- 
cate the  way  for  further  progress. 

CHARLES  A.   BRIGGS. 
STEWART   D.    F.    SALMOND. 


Theological  Encyclopaedia.  V>y  Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.D.,  Pro- 

fessor of  Biblical  Theology,  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  New  York. 
An  Introduction  to  the  Litera-       By  S.  R.  Driver,  D.D,,  Regius  Pro- 
lure  of  the  Old  Testament.  fessor  of    Hebrew,   and  Canon  of 

Christ   Church,    Oxford.     {Revised 
and  enlarged  edition.) 
The  Study  of  the   Old   Testa-       By  the  Right  Rev.  Herbert  Edward 
ment.  Rvle,  D.D.,  Lord  Bishop  of  Ex- 

eter. 
Old  Testament  History.  By  Henry  Preserved  Smith,  D.D., 

late  Professor  of  Biblical  History, 
Amherst  College,  Mass. 
Contemporary    History   of  the       By  Francis   Brown,  D.D.,  Profes- 
Old  Testament.  sor  of  Hebrew,  Union  Theological 

Setninary,  New  York. 
Theology   of   the    Old    Testa-       By  A.  B.  Davidson,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
ment.  Professor  of  Hebrew,  New  College, 

Edinburgh. 


tk  '^nictniXiion^t  C^eofogicaf  feiBrarg. 


An  Introduction  to  the  Litera- 
ture of  the  New  Testament. 

Canon    and    Text   of  the    New 
Testament. 


The  Life  of  Christ. 


A    History   of    Christianity    in 
the  Apostolic  Age. 


Contemporary    History   of    the 
New  Testament. 

Theology  of  the    New   Testa- 
ment. 


The  Ancient  Catholic  Church. 

The  Later  Catholic  Church. 

The  Latin  Church. 

History  of  Christian  Doctrine. 

Christian  Institutions. 

Philosophy  of  Religion. 
Apologetics. 

The  Doctrine  of  God. 

Christian  Ethics. 

The  Christian  Pastor  and  the 
Working  Church. 

The  Christian  Preacher. 

Rabbinical  Literature. 


By  S.  D.  F.  Salmonu.  D.D..  Prin- 
cipal of  the  Free  Church  College, 
Aberdeen. 

By  Caspar  Rene  Gregory,  D.D., 
LI.,D.,  Professor  of  New  Testa- 
ment Exegesis  in  the  University  of 
Leipzig. 

By  William  Sanday,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Lady  Margaret  Professor  of  Di- 
vinity, and  Canon  of  Christ  Church, 
Oxford. 

By  Arthur  C.  McGiffert,  D.D., 
Professor  of  Church  Histor\ . 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  New 
York.     {A^ozv  ready.) 

By  Frank  C.  Porter,  Ph.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Biblical  Theology,  Vale 
University,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

By  George  B.  Stevens,  D.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Systematic  Theology, 
Yale  University,  New  Haven, 
Conn.     {Now  ready.) 

By  Robert  Rainy,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Principal  of  the  New  College, 
Edinburgh.     {Now  ready.) 

By  Robert  Rainy,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Principal  of  the  New  College, 
Edinburgh. 

By  Archibald  Robertson,  D.D., 
Principal  of  King's  College,  London. 

By  G.  P.  Fisher,  D.D.,  LL.D..  Pro- 
fessor of  Ecclesiastical  History, 
Yale  University,  New  Haven, 
Conn.  {Revised  and  enlarged  edi- 
tion.) 

By  A.  V.  G.  Allen,  D.D..  Profes- 
sor of  Ecclesiastical  History,  P. 
E.  Divinity  School,  Cambridge, 
Mass.     {Now  ready.) 

By  Robert  Flint,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Professor  of  Divinity  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Edinburgh. 

By  A.  B.  Bruce,  D.D.,  late  Profes- 
sor of  New  Testament  Exegesis, 
Free  Church  College,  Glasgow. 
{Revised  and  enlarged  edition.) 

By  William  N.  Clarke,  D.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Systematic  Theology, 
Hamilton  Theological  Seminary. 

By  Newman  Smyth,  D.D.,  Pastor  of 
Congregational  Church,  New  Ha- 
ven.  {Revised  and  enlarged  edition.) 

By  Washington  Gladden,  D.D., 
Pastor  of  Congregational  Church, 
Columbus,  Ohio.     {No7v  ready.) 

By  John  Watson,  D.D.,  Pastor  of 
Presbyterian  Church,  Liverpool. 

By  S,  Schechter,  M.A.,  Reader  in 
Talmudic  in  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  England. 


Zbc   Jnternattonal   XTbeoIoatcal   Xibrari^^ 


EDITED   BY 

STEWART  D.    F.    SALMOND,    D.D., 

Principal,  and  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology  and  New  Testament  Exegetis^ 

United  Free  Church  College,  Aberdeen; 

AND 

CHARLES  A.    BRIGGS,    D.D., 

Edward  Robinson  Professor  of  Biblical  Theology,  Union  Theological 

Seminary,  New  York. 


THE   ANCIENT    CATHOLIC    CHURCH. 
By    ROBERT    RAINY,    D.D. 


International  Theological   Library 
THE 

ANCIENT    CATHOLIC 
CHUECH 


FROM   THE  ACCESSION  OF   TRAJAN 

TO  THE  FOURTH  GENERAL  COUNCIL 

[A.D.  98-4S1] 


BT 

ROBERT  RAINY,  D.D. 

PBiNCIPAli  OF  THS  KSW  COLLEGE,   KDIKBUROH 


NEW  YORK 

CHAELES  SCRIBNEK'S  SONS 

1902 


TTu  Rights  of  Translation  and  of  Reproduction  are  Reserved* 

GIFT 


R3^ 


PREFACE 


It  was  the  duty  of  the  writer  to  endeavour  to  combine  in 
this  volume  the  manifold  detail  which  the  student  requires, 
with  the  points  of  view  and  the  modes  of  treatment  which 
make  a  book  readable.  How  far  he  has  succeeded,  others 
must  judge.  He  has  thought  it  due  to  the  subject  and  the 
reader  to  express  frankly  the  impression  on  his  own  mind 
which  the  various  topics  have  made.  He  hopes,  notwith- 
standing, that  he  has  not  allowed  personal  bias  to  obscure 
the  objective  realities  of  the  history. 

In  the  Appendix,  besides  supplementary  notes  on 
literature  a  few  details  are  added  which  had  been  acci- 
dentally omitted  in  the  text. 


440 


CONTENTS 


Intsodvotiok 


VAOB 

1-2 


FIRST   DIVISION:    A.D.  98-180 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Environment 


Gentile  life  and  religion 

Popular  feeling  towards  Christians 

Attitude  of  the  Government  . 

The  Jews 

Extension  of  Christianity       • 


CHAPTER  II 

Thb^arly  Churches 

Sense  of  unity — Public  worship — ^Lucian's  impressions 
Leadership  and  organisation  .... 

Note. — Hatch  and  Hamack  on  the  episcopate 
Discipline       ...... 

Martyrdom     •••••• 


5-9 

9-11 

11-18 

18-23 

23-26 


27-32 

32-40 
40-42 
42-44 
44-49 


CHAPTER  III 
The  Church's  Life 


Apostolic  Fathers 
Apologists 
Apocrypha      • 


62-60 
60-62 
62-65 


CHAPTER  IV 

Beliefs  and  Sacraments 

Beliefs  of  the  early  Church     . 

Early  forms  of  creed — "Apostles'"  Creed— Regula 

Baptism — Agape — Eucharist . 

Forgiveness  of  sins      •  • 

Easter  controversy      •  , 

Til 


66-78 
73-76 
76-79 
79-81 
Sl-83 


Vlll                                              CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Apologists 

God  and  the  world— The  Logos— Man 

The  significance  of  Christ's  coming     .            .            ,            , 

Relation  to  the  thought  of  their  time 

Impoverished  representation  of  Christianity  .            , 

Harnack's  view  criticised        .... 

PA0B8 

85-87 
88 
88-89 
90-92 
92-93 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Heresies 

A.  Gnosticism            ...... 

General  description  of  the  scheme      . 

Leading  Gnostic  schools         .            .            .            .            , 

B.  Marcion     ••...., 

.       94-119 

.       94-111 

.     Ill  119 

119-127 

CHAPTER  VII 

MONTANISM 

.     128-189 

SECOOT)  DIVISION:    A.D.  180-313 


CHAPTER  VIII 
Relation  to  the  State 


Action  of  the  Government 


141-145 


CHAPTER  IX 
The  New  Philosophy 


146-166 


CHAPTER  X 
Chbistian  Thought  and  Litekature 


Leading  names — What  they  hold  in  common 
School  of  Alexandria  .... 
School  of  Asia  Minor  .  •  •  . 

School  of  Africa  •  •  .  . 


157-160 
161-179 
180-184 
184-197 


CHAPTER  XI 
Christ  and  God 


How  the  question  took  shape 
Justin  Martyr 

Irenseus — Tertullian — Origen 
Monarcbian  theories  . 


198-202 
203-205 
206-20« 
209-211 


CONTENTS 


IX 


Dynaniical  Mouarchianism — Paul  of  Samosata 
Modalistic  Monarcbiauism — Sabellius 
Review  •  •  •  •  • 


PAOBS 

212-215 
215-217 
218-220 


CHAPTER   XII 

Christian  Life 

Teaching  of  Clement  and  TertuUian  . 
Marriage — Asceticism— Family  life  . 
Charity — Public  service — Doctrine  of  merit  . 

CHAPTER  XIII 

Worship 

The  Lord's  day— The  Lord's  Supper  . 
Public  prayer — Baptism 
Easter— Epiphany — The  Christian  dead 
Church  buildings       •  .  .  . 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Clergy 

Growth  of  the  bishop's  power  .  • 

Chorepiscqpoi  .  .  .  .  • 

Election  of  bishops  and  presbyters  .  • 

Minor  Orders — Deaconesses  .  •  • 


221-222 
223-226 
226-228 


229-232 

232-235 
236-239 
239-240 


241-245 

245 

245-247 

247-248 


CHAPTER   XV 

Discipline  and  Schisms 

Reception  of  penitents  .... 

The  "lapsed" — Schism  of  Felicissimus 
Schism,  of  Novatian — of  Heraclius — of  Meletius 
Heretical  baptism       •  •  .  .  • 


249-251 
251-253 
253-255 
265-261 


CHAPTER  XVI 
Mamicheism 


262-267 


THIRD  DIVISION:  A.D.  313-451 


CHAPTER  XVII 
The  Church  in  the  Christian  Empieb  and  beyond 

A.  The  Emperors       ...••,. 

B.  The  Church  in  transition  ..••«. 

b 


268-271 
271-276 


CONTENTS 


C.  Policy  of  the  Cliristian  empire  in  regard  to  religion 

D.  The  Pagan  Opposition       .... 

E.  Christianity  beyond  the  empire    .  .  • 

F.  Life  in  the  Church  .  .  •  • 


PAGES 

276-279 
279-285 
285-288 
288-290 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

MONASTICISM 

Eastern  developments — Antony — Pachomins 
Spreads  to  the  West — Ambrose — Martin — Cassian 
Jovinian  and  Vigilantius        .  . 

Criticism  of  the  movement     •  •  . 

Divergences    •  •  •  •  • 


291-295 
295-298 
298-299 
299-304 
304-305 


CHAPTER  XIX 

The  Cleegy 

Minor  Orders — Deacons — Presbyters—  Chorepiscqpoi 

Election  of  bishops     .             .            .            .  . 

Metropolitans — Patriarchates             •            •  • 

Growing  power  of  Rome         .            •            •  • 

General  conditions  of  clerical  life       •            •  • 


306-308 
308-309 
309-312 
313 
814-322 


CHAPTER  XX 

NiCENE  Council 

The  belief  of  the  Church — Positions  of  Arius 
Constantine  calls  a  council     .  • 

Proceedings  of  the  council      •  •  • 

Review  •  •  •  •  . 


323-328 
328-330 
330-333 
833-338 


CHAPTER  XXI 

Arian  Controversy — Post-Nicenb 

State  of  Parties 

To  the  death  of  Constantine  (325-337) 

To  the  reunion  of  the  empire  under  Constantius  (337-351) 

To  the  death  of  Constantius  (351-361) 

To  the  council  of  Constantinople  (361-381) 

Gothic  Arian  ism  .  ,  , 

Review  .  .  •  • 

Note. — ^The  Nicene  Creed      •  • 


. 

.     339-340 

. 

.     340-342 

tins  (337-351) 

.     342-345 

. 

.     345-348 

• 

.     348-352 

•            • 

,     352-353 

•            • 

.     353-355 

•            • 

.     355-357 

CHAPTER  XXII 
Minor  Controversies 


A.  Apollinarius  • 

B»  Origenistic  controversies 


858-364 
864-369 


CONTENTS 


XI 


Note. — Main  points  of  the  attack  against  Origeu 

C.  Professed  Reformers  ,  . 

D.  Priscillianists        .  •  •  • 


PAOES 

370 

370 

371-373 


-     CHAPTER  XXIII 
Discussions  regarding  the  Person  of  Christ 


A.  Case  of  Nestorius  . 

B.  Case  of  Eutyches  . 

C.  Council  of  Chalcedon 
Review  •  • 


376-392 

392-396 
396-401 
401-404 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

DONATISM 


How  the  schism  arose  • 

Character  of  African  Christianity 
The  Donatist  positions 
Augustine's  part  in  the  debate 


CHAPTER  XXV 
Ecclesiastical  Personages  of  Fourth  Century 


405-407 
407-409 
409-411 
412-421 


Eusebius  of  Caesarea   .            •            • 

.    422-423 

Athauasius      .             .            •            • 

.     423-426 

The  Three  Cappadociaus 

.     426-430 

Hilary  of  Poictiers      . 

.    430-432 

Martin  of  Tours 

•    432-433 

Ambrose  of  Milan      •           •           • 

•    434-436 

CHAPTER  XXVI 
Festivals,  Church  Services,  and  Sacraments 


A.  Festivals   . 

B.  Order  of  service     . 

C.  Doctrine  of  the  eucharist 

D.  Baptism    , 

E.  Preaching. 

F.  Objects  of  worship 

G.  Pictures  and  angels 


437-440 

440-444 
444-445 
445-449 
449-451 
451-453 
453-454 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
Discipline  . 


455-459 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
Augustine 


•    460-467 


xu 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  XXIX 
Pelagian  Controversy 


Life  and  teaching  of  Pelagius 

Previous  church  teachers  on  human  ability 

Teaching  of  Augustine 

The  Pelagian  positions  , 

The  positions  of  Augustine     . 

The  judgment  of  the  African  Church 

The  origin  of  Semi-Pelagianism  • 


rAoxs 

468-473 
473-475 
475-476 
477-479 
479-482 
483 
483-484 


CHAPTER  XXX 
Semi- Pelagian  ism 


The  community  at  Lerins  and  their  views 

Cassian  and  Faustus   . 

The  Synod  of  Orange 

Note. — Semi-Pelagian  positions 


486-488 

488 

489-490 

490-493 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
Ecclesiastical  Personages  [who  survived  a.d.  400] 


Chrysostom     . 

• 

•             • 

.     494-496 

Cyril  of  Alexandria— Theodoret- 

-  Isido-^o       , 

•             • 

.     496-498 

Jerome 

.             . 

•             • 

.     498-501 

Rufinus—  Synesius — Cassian  . 

.             , 

• 

.     501-503 

Sulpicius  Severus— Salvian     , 

. 

.     503-505 

Leo  I..            • 

•             • 

•             • 

.     505-607 

CHAPTER  XXXII 

Processes  of  Change 

Canon  of  the  N.T.      . 
Creed  and  Regula — Stress  on  doctrine 
Growth  of  the  bishop's  power  , 

Conception  of  the  Church       .  • 

The  sacraments  .  .  . 

Formulation  of  orthodoxy — Councils 
Multitudinism  triumphant — Consequences 


609-510 
511 
512-513 
514-516 
516-517 
518-519 
620-621 


APPENDIX 


A.  Literature  of  Church  History 

B.  Supplementary  Notes  to  Chapters 


623-525 
525-631 


THE 

ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH 


THE 

ANCIENT    CATHOLIC    CHURCH 

INTEODUCTION 

An  earlier  volume  of  the  Series  was  devoted  to  the  sub- 
ject of  Apostolic  Christianity.  The  present  narrative 
proposes  to  contemplate  the  life,  growth,  and  influence  of 
what,  as  distinguished  from  mediaeval  and  later  develop- 
ments, is  called  the  early  Catholic  Church.  The  period  iu 
view  is  nearly  that  which  has  been  named  the  Patristic. 
It  has  also  been  denominated,  but  not  perhaps  very 
happily,  the  period  of  Christianity  under  its  Antique  and 
Classical  form.^ 

The  last  survivor  of  the  apostles,  John,  is  said  to  have 
died  at  Ephesus  near  the  end  of  the  first  century. 
Apostolic  guidance  had  by  that  time  become  only  a 
memory  in  most  of  the  churches;  but  for  years  after, 
and  deep  into  the  following  century,  vivid  impressions  of 
Apostles  and  their  sayings  were  preserved  and  rehearsed  in 
various  churches.  Near  the  end,  then,  of  the  first  century 
our  task  opens.  The  close  might  be  placed  as  early  as  the 
pontificate  of  Gregory  i.,  a.d.  590-604,  or,  on  other 
accounts,  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Charlemagne,  say  A.D. 
800.  The  present  volume  carries  the  history  down  to 
A.D.  451.  A  subsequent  volume  will  cover  the  rest,  and 
also  the  transition  period  down  to  Gregory  vii. 

A  great  landmark  in  the  history  of  the  Early  Church 
» So  Kurtz. 
I 


2  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 

is  furnished  in  the  change  by  which,  in  the  days  of 
Constantine,  the  Eoman  Empire  allied  itself  with  Chris- 
tianity. The  year  313,  when  Constantine  and  Licinius 
published  their  edict  of  toleration,  may  here  be  most 
conveniently  fixed  upon.^ 

The  period  a.d,  98-313  finds  a  natural  subdivision  at 
the  close  of  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  A.D.  180,  or, 
which  for  some  purposes  is  more  convenient,  at  the  close 
of  his  son's  reign  in  192.  In  the  period  succeeding  A.D. 
313,  the  year  ad.  451,  with  which  this  volume  closes, 
corresponds  pretty  well  with  important  changes  in  the 
affairs  both  of  the  Christian  Church  and  of  the  Eoman 
world,  and  may  serve  as  a  resting-place. 
»  So  Moller. 


PIEST   DIVISION 

A.D.  98-180 

CHAPTER   I 

The  Environment 

Merivale,  Romans  under  the  Empire,  7  vols.  12rao,  1868. 

Friedlander,  SittengescMchte  Roms^  3  vols.  8vo,  1881. 

Mommsen,  The  Provinces  of  the  Roman  Empiret  ^^g*  Tr.,  2  vols. 

8vo,  1886. 
Hardy,  Christianity  and  the  Roman  GovemmerU,  London,  1894. 
Neumann,  Rdmische  Staaty  Leipz.  1890. 

Early  Christianity  was  born  and  grew  in  the  Eoman 
world.  It  reached,  no  doubt,  into  the  regions  beyond,  but 
of  its  fortunes  there  we  know  little.  The  Church  grew  in 
a  society  always  conscious  of  the  Eoman  strength,  gradually 
awakening  to  the  peculiar  genius  of  the  Eoman  law,  im- 
pressed with  the  sentiment  of  the  Eoman  destiny.  All 
these  carried  with  them  some  impression  of  the  religious 
tone  which  Eome  itself  cherished  in  connection  with  the 
State.  The  mental  life  was  mainly  Greek,  taking  colour 
in  some  regions  from  Italian  influences,  and  in  some  from 
Oriental  The  various  social  characteristics  and  influences, 
once  associated  with  distinctive  national  types,  were 
mingled  now  in  the  lively  intercourse  of  the  empire,  which 
assuaged  old  barbarisms,  but  weakened  old  moralities ;  yet 
in  the  quieter  regions  the  ancient  ways  of  each  people 
lived  on,  giving  way  gradually.  No  old  religion  was  dis- 
placed; but  each  was  losing  something,  most  had  lost 
much  of  their  ancient  significance  and  credibility.  The 
educated  people  realised  this  most  distinctly. 


4  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

Politically,  the  history  from  A.D.  1  to  313  divides 
itself  into  three  stages.  First  to  ad.  98,  from  the  latter 
days  of  Tiberius  to  the  end  of  Nerva's  reign.  It  was  a 
period  during  which  the  ruling  persons  on  the  whole 
evoked  little  attachment  and  created  little  confidence.  In 
A.D.  98  Nerva  performed  his  one  great  service  to  the  State 
by  calling  Trajan  to  the  succession.  Trajan  was  the  first 
of  four  great  emperors  whose  reigns  extended  to  a.d.  180. 
During  their  time  the  Roman  order  was  well  maintained, 
and  the  impression  of  care  and  justice  in  the  highest 
quarters  inspired  confidence  and  tranquillity  among  their 
subjects.  The  twelve  years  of  Commodus  (to  a.d,  192) 
introduced  a  third  stage  of  prevailing  disquiet  and  decay 
which  lasted  for  a  hundred  years.  During  this  long  period 
some  able  and  some  public-spirited  men  rose  to  the 
throne;  but,  on  the  whole,  it  was  a  time  of  feeble  and 
imcertain  government,  of  civil  wars,  of  incessant  change  of 
dynasty,  of  frequent  pestilence  and  famine,  and  of  severe 
pressure  by  the  barbarians  upon  the  weakened  empire. 
Population,  wealth,  letters,  all  decayed :  and  though  the 
strong  fabric  of  the  Roman  administration  and  the  Roman 
law  held  out  through  the  evil  time,  the  whole  system  was 
strained  and  shaken.  Latterly  a  series  of  soldier  emperors 
fought  the  empire  out  of  its  disorganisation  and  disgrace. 
Diocletian,  a  man  of  the  same  breed,  who  came  to  the 
throne  in  ad.  284,  completed  the  task;  and  he  celebrated 
the  last  triumph  Rome  was  destined  to  see.  During  this 
time  of  frequent  calamity  and  distress,  outcry  against  the 
Christians  as  the  guilty  cause  stimulated  governors  to 
persecute ;  and  about  the  middle  of  the  third  century  some 
of  the  emperors,  and  those  not  the  worst,  judged  it  to  be 
in  the  interest  of  the  State  to  authorise  new  and  special 
measures  in  order  to  put  down  Christianity.  Persecutions 
then  became  very  severe.  But  from  the  time  of  Gallienus, 
A.D.  260-268,  these  attempts  ceased.  When  Diocletian 
set  up  his  system  by  which  the  imperial  power  was  dis- 
tributed, and  an  emperor  (Augustus  or  Caesar)  was  posted 
on    every  dangerous    frontier,    the    Christians,   along  with 


98-180]  GENTILE    LIFE  6 

other  citizens,  enjoyed  for  a  time  the  benefits  of  peace  and 
order.  But  once  more,  in  303  (under  the  influence  of  his 
colleague  Galerius),  Diocletian  authorised  the  persecution 
which  is  associated  with  his  name.  In  a.d.  311  Galerius 
suspended  these  severities.  Two  years  later  Constantino 
and  Licinius  shared  the  empire  between  them,  and  by  an 
edict,  dated  at  Milan,  they  very  expressly  enacted  liberty 
of  faith  and  worship  for  all  their  subjects. 

Gentile  Life  and  Religion 

During  the  first  century  the  popular  paganism  existed 
side  by  side  with  a  great  deal  of  disbelief  on  the  part  of 
thinking  people.  The  character  of  the  government  and 
of  the  times  inspired  distrust  and  apprehension,  rendered 
men  cynical  about  truth  and  goodness,  and  disposed  them 
to  think,  so  far  as  they  thought  methodically,  on  Epicurean 
lines.  Yet  individuals  could  cherish  ideals,  and  could 
sometimes  live  for  them,  generally  clinging,  in  that  case, 
to  a  Stoic  creed.^  But  as  we  pass  into  the  second 
century  a  change  is  felt.  With  better  order  in  the  State, 
and  nobler  examples  in  high  quarters,  serious  thought  took 
courage,  and  a  reaction  set  in.  It  did  not  prevail  univers- 
ally; the  wittiest  monument  of  the  cynical  and  mocking 
spirit  exists  in  the  second  century  in  the  writings  of 
Lucian.  But  men  possessed  by  moral  aims  could  find  an 
audience,  and  they  were  stirred  by  the  consciousness  of  a 
mission.  The  effort  to  find  theories  by  which  moral  and 
religious  life  could  justify  its  aspirations,  was  resumed  again ; 
and  religious  systems  like  the  mysteries,  which  professed 
to  purify  and  to  consecrate  life,  found  sincere  votaries. 
Unfortunately,  the  difficulties  were  great.  Where  could 
means  be  found  for  representing  life  as  a  career  which 
has  a  real  goal  at  the  end  of  it?  Besides,  it  was  felt, 
almost  universally,  that  for  one  reason  or  another  the 
popular  worships  must  in  some  degree  be  kept  in  credit. 
But  they  were  not  credible.     Hence  abundant  insincerities 

^  Seneca,  d.  a.d.  65  ;  Epictetus,  from  Nero  to  Hadrian. 


6  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [ad. 

accompanied  really  good  intentions;  and  fine  sentiments 
of  every  degree  of  spuriousness  circulated  along  with  the 
good  coin  of  moral  endeavour  and  seeking  after  God. 

The  medium  through  which  these  influences  chiefly 
worked  was  the  fashion,  widely  diffused,  of  interest  in 
public  discourse.  Education  under  Greek  methods  was 
largely  literary ;  and  it  aimed  at  forming  habits  of  effective 
writing  and  speaking.  It  could  hardly  be  said  that  books 
were  dear  or  scarce;  but  the  prevailing  taste  preferred 
lecturing  and  discussion.  Large  sections  of  the  com- 
munity had  tastes  of  this  kind,  and  rhetoricians  abounded 
who  sought  fame  and  livelihood  by  appealing  to  them.  They 
durst  not  meddle  with  politics;  they  found  themes,  how- 
ever, in  history,  and  in  the  great  poetical  traditions  of 
Greece;  but  obviously  also  the  questions  of  human  life, 
of  duty  and  destiny,  which  the  philosophers  had  debated, 
opened  a  wide  field  to  eloquent  persons  in  search  of  a  sub- 
ject. The  views  offered  on  such  questions  were  not  likely 
to  be  profound.  Still  the  field  lay  as  naturally  open  to 
them  as  social  questions  do  to  the  eloquent  persons  of 
to-day;  and  a  professional  rhetorician  almost  always  was 
prepared  to  pose  as  a  philosopher  also  (Zeller,  Phil.  d. 
Griechen,  iv.  729).  The  section  of  society  which  cared  to 
hear  him  had  its  own  habits  of  sentiment  and  of  talk  on 
these  subjects ;  and  people  of  condition  could  even  keep  a 
rhetorician  (soi-disant  philosopher)  on  their  establishment.^ 
Men  could  combine  these  tastes  with  flippancy,  sceptjlcism, 
and  immorality ;  but  they  could  be  combined  also  with 
serious  thought  upon  the  deeper  questions  of  life.  This 
nobler  side  of  things  gains  ground  in  the  second  century, 
and  it  is  represented  and  guided  by  notable  men.  Epictetus 
carried  over  from  the  previous  century  his  Stoic  teaching, 
enriched  and  deepened  by  a  religious  pathos.  Plutarch  of 
Macedonia,  the  cultivated  gentleman  of  literary  eminence, 
embodied  in  many  works  his  outlook  on  life,  and  advocated 
a  tranquil  and  pious  morality,  drawing  strength  from  the 
better  side  of  the  popular  religion,  while  dismissing  what 

^  Hatch,  Hibhert  Led.  p.  35  fol.,  and  Lucian,  de  Mercede  conductis. 


98-180]  GENTILE   LIFE  7 

savoured  of  terror,  distrust,  and  hatred.  On  a  lower  moral 
platform  Apuleius  may  be  named ;  on  a  lower  intellectual 
one,  Maximus  Tyrius  and  Numenius.  But  perhaps  no 
one  more  than  Dio  Chrysostom  illustrates  how  men  were 
drawn  at  this  time  to  betake  themselves  with  earnestness  to 
the  line  of  moral  appeal.  Dio,  originally  a  rhetorician  able 
to  be  eloquent  on  any  theme,  professes  to  have  experienced, 
during  his  banishment  from  Eome,  a  kind  of  conversion 
to  moral  earnestness ;  and  henceforth  he  makes  it  his  aim 
to  deal  with  topics  which  will  heal  and  purify  men's  souls.^ 

The  views  on  God,  virtue,  and  (sometimes)  immortality, 
cherished  by  these  more  serious  minds,  had  a  great  in- 
terest for  the  Christians ;  they  furnished  the  line  on  which 
the  Christian  appeal  to  the  Gentile  mind  proceeded.  It  is 
natural  to  ask,  further,  how  far  Christianity  itself  had  a 
share  in  producing  and  guiding  this  ethical  revival.  All 
the  probabilities  are  in  favour  of  its  having  had  some 
share.  Christianity  was  a  contemporary  stream  of  in- 
tensely powerful  moral  and  religious  life;  that  is  an  in- 
fluence which  always  sets  currents  agoing,  even  in  regions 
where  it  is  repudiated.  The  religious  seriousness,  the  tone 
of  kindliness  to  men  and  of  trust  in  Providence,  which  the 
wise  Gentile  of  the  second  century  cherished,  must  owe 
something,  very  likely  not  a  little,  to  impressions  received 
from  Christian  life  and  character.  Men  might  decline  to 
own  any  obligations  to  the  religion  of  the  crucified  Jew. 
And  yet  the  lives  of  His  followers  might  awaken  a  great 
longing  after  a  goodness  and  a  moral  strength  comparable 
to  that  evinced  by  them.^  At  all  events  the  growth  of  a 
serious  and  inquiring  spirit  opened  a  way  for  the  Christian 
message  in  some  quarters ;  ^  and  the  same  cause  made  the 
gospel  interesting  to  men  who  did  not  find  it  acceptable. 
Some  of  these  were  repelled  by  the  claim  of  Christianity  to 

*  Zeller,  Phil.  d.  Oricchen,  iv.  729. 

*  Points  of  contact  with   Cliristianity  in  the  writings  of  Seneca  and  oJ 
Marcus  Aurelius  have  been  suggested. 

*  Kg.  Justin  Martyr's  account  of  his  own  conversion,  Dial.  ii.  2 ;  alsc 
Clem.  Horn.  i.  1  f. 


8  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH  [a.D. 

by  the  one  true  religion ;  that  was  claiming  too  much ;  and 
they  pointed  to  aspects  of  the  Christian  story  and  the  Chris- 
tian teaching  which  struck  them  as  incoherent  or  super- 
stitious.^ Others  were  evidently  impressed  by  the  sincerity 
and  the  goodness  of  the  Christians ;  they  mock  them,  but 
they  do  it  with  good-humour,  and  even  with  a  certain 
contemptuous  kindliness.^  Generally  it  may  be  assumed 
that  the  cultivated  Gentile  world  knew  more  about  Chris- 
tianity than  it  chose  to  say.  It  long  remained  a  point  of 
honour  with  most  representatives  of  the  old  culture  to 
make  no  references,  or  as  few  as  possible,  to  this  popular 
"  superstition."  It  came  from  the  barbarians,  and  it  had 
no  claims  on  the  serious  attention  of  a  wise  man.  One 
might  attack  it,  in  the  hope  of  destroying  its  power  over 
some  of  its  votaries ;  otherwise  it  was  better  ignored.  But 
the  influence  which  was  not  owned  was  felt. 

As  to  the  general  world  of  Gentile  life,  those  who  wish 
to  acquire  impressions  of  it  must  consult  works  on  that 
express  subject.^  On  the  whole,  it  was  superstitious,  and 
at  the  same  time  low  in  tone,  coarse,  and  immoral.  Still 
we  must  not  forget  the  virtues  which,  even  in  a  pagan 
society,  the  providence  of  God  nurses  and  disciplines,  the 
affections  which  soften  and  cheer  life,  and  the  religious 
longings  which  spring  spontaneously  in  some  hearts,  and 
which  anxiety  and  sorrow  awaken  at  some  times  in  almost 
all.  Christian  religion  made  way  in  this  element  by  the 
assuredness  of  its  belief,  by  the  resonance  of  its  strong 
morality,  by  the  attractiveness  of  Christian  character,  and 
by  the  unsparing  charities  of  the  churches.  Everywhere 
there  were  individuals,  there  were  families,  attracted,  im- 
pressed; ultimately  either  carried  over,  or,  if  left  outside, 
yet  looking  wistfully  across  the  border.  Such  cases  were 
incessantly  occurring;  but  yet  the  sentiment  of  the  masses 
towards  Christianity  was  hostile.  This  swelled  sometimes 
into  rage,  and  it  long  continued  to  reveal  itself  energetically. 
Individuals  could  continue  to  be  powerfully  animated  by  this 

*  Celsus.  *  Lucian. 

*  Friedlander,  Sittengeschiehte  Eoms,  3  vols.,  Leipzig,  1881. 


98-180]  fe:eli>;g  towards  christians  d 

hostile  sentiment  even  when,  as  the  result  showed,  a  complete 
revolution  by  conversion  was  on  the  point  of  befalling  them. 


Popular  Feeling  towards  Christians 

The  habits  and  industries,  the  courtesies  and  enjoy- 
ments, which  made  up  Gentile  life  were  all  touched,  more 
or  less,  with  some  reference  to  the  gods  and  their  worship ; 
and  earnest  Christians  had  to  purge  this  out,  or  stand 
aloof.  Then  there  ran  through  all  a  strain  of  careless 
secularity,  and  very  often  of  immorality,  against  which  a 
Christian  must  protest.  This  element  culminated  in  the 
theatres  and  in  the  various  forms  of  spectacle  so  popular 
throughout  the  empire  :  hence  the  resolute  opposition  to 
these  recreations  which  appeared  among  the  Christians  so 
early,  and  in  which  the  Church  was  so  much  united.  It 
does  not  follow  that  heathens  could  not  be  persons  of  high 
moral  quality;  but  even  those  who  could  claim  to  be  so 
regarded,  tolerated,  as  inevitable,  the  low  moral  tone  which 
existed  around  them  :  it  was  for  them  a  spiritual  ugliness 
which  they  disliked,  but  they  hardly  recoiled  from  it  as 
earnest  Christians  felt  that  they  must  recoil.  Beyond  the 
idolatry,  the  immorality,  and  the  frivolity,  rose  the  question 
how  far  many  current  usages  of  Gentile  life  might  be 
accepted  by  the  Christians  as  simply  human,  or  whether 
they  ought  not  rather  to  be  rejected  as  carrying  with  them 
temptations  which  a  Christian  should  avoid.  It  was  a 
question  of  degree,  on  which  Christians  of  different  tempers, 
and  under  different  social  conditions,  were  sure  to  differ 
among  themselves.  But  a  man  could  not  be  a  Christian 
in  any  sense  who  did  not  make  a  stand  somewhere. 

Out  of  all  this,  then,  arose  in  the  Gentile  world,  speak- 
ing generally,  an  intense  popular  aversion  to  Christianity. 
For  in  regard  to  this  whole  region  of  human  life  the  new 
religion  seemed  to  threaten  indefinite  disturbance.  It  inter- 
fered with  the  established  ways  of  society — with  trade 
interests,  with  family  life,  with  popular  amusements,  with 
accepted  religious  observances.     There  might  be  compliant 


10  THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHtJRCH  [a.D. 

Christians,  but  the  representative  and  influential  Christians 
were  not  compliant.  The  Christians  might  be  social  among 
themselves,  but  for  general  purposes  they  were  non-social  in 
a  degree  that  suggested  odium  generis  huniani}  For,  indeed, 
if  a  Christian  wished  to  escape  friction  and  bitterness,  it  was 
natural  for  him  to  stand  aside  from  the  general  life ;  and  so 
he  incurred  the  charge  of  contemptissima  inertia^  as  well  as  of 
luguhris  cultus  and  malefica  superstitio?  The  very  expecta- 
tion of  the  Lord's  return,  while  it  helped  the  Christian  to 
bear  persecution,  might  render  him  indifferent  to  current 
social  interests.  Then  his  purer  morals  and  his  more 
spiritual  but  exclusive  religion  seemed  to  mark  him  as  one 
who  claimed  to  be  a  superior  person,  and  who  disapproved 
of  his  neighbours.  The  Cynics  had  already  made  themselves 
unpopular  by  their  censorious  ways.  They  were  meddle- 
some ;  they  thrust  their  morality  under  the  noses  of  people 
who  did  not  want  it ;  they  were  busybodies  in  other  men's 
matters.  But  the  Cynics  were  merely  a  disagreeable  set 
of  self-important  philosophers.  That  kept  them  apart. 
Christianity,  on  the  contrary,  had  a  strange  power  of  spread- 
ing, and  found  its  way  into  the  most  unlikely  quarters. 
How  hateful  it  must  have  seemed  when  this  mysterious 
influence  got  hold  of  a  member  of  a  family !  He  was 
estranged  from  his  own  circle,  and  entangled  in  a  new 
society  largely  composed  of  slaves  and  low  people;  his 
money,  too,  if  he  had  any,  was  drawn  into  the  Christian 
communism.  New  questions  rose  about  marriage.  Nothing 
is  commoner  in  the  legends  of  female  martyrs  than  the 
picture  of  a  maiden  of  good  social  standing,  who  becomes 
a  Christian,  and  refuses  to  carry  out  the  marriage  arranged 
for  her  by  her  family.  Christians  had  scruples  about  festi- 
vals, about  illuminating  their  doors  at  times  of  rejoicing, 
about  undertaking  public  functions,  about  ordinary  amuse- 
ments,— about  things  in  regard  to  which  it  seemed  to  the 
Gentile  perfectly  immaterial  how  they  were  disposed  of. 
Then  this    religion    of    theirs  —  what  was    it  ?      A   very 

1  Hardy,  Christianity  and  the  Roman  Government,  p.  45. 
*  Tacitus,  Ann.  xv.  44 ;  Suetonius,  Nero,  c.  16. 


98-180]  ATTITUDE   OF   GOVERNMENT  11 

questionable  business; — no  temples,  no  shrines,  no  stately 
services ;  evening  or  nocturnal  meetings  in  private  houses. 
Stories  went  abroad  of  monstrous  crimes  perpetrated  in 
these  Christian  meetings.^  It  was  altogether  a  detestable 
infection  from  which  no  man's  family  was  safe  ;  and  it  was 
a  satisfaction  to  believe  the  worst  about  it,  that  one  might 
have  the  better  excuse  for  hating  it.  This  popular  feeling 
had  become  strong  long  before  the  government,  although  it 
had  decided  to  treat  obstinate  Christians  as  outside  the  laws, 
had  yet  acquired  an  impression  that  they  were  dangerous 
outlaws,  or  that  the  case  required  any  very  serious  or 
systematic  treatment.  Add  to  all  this  that  the  regular 
worship  of  the  gods  was  thought  to  guarantee  the  State 
against  calamities,  and  that  neglect  of  it  might  bring 
disaster  upon  the  whole  community.  For,  indeed,  the 
public  religion  was  the  consecration  of  the  State,  and  in 
a  manner  the  basis  of  it.  And  the  Christian,  not  con- 
tented with  quietly  disbelieving,  must  openly  repudiate  it. 
All  this  fermented  together  in  the  popular  mind.^ 

Attitude  of  the  Government 

The  popular  aversion  to  Christianity  was  not  without 
influence  on  the  action  of  the  government ;  for  a  Eoman 
magistrate  was  ready  enough  to  set  himself  against  any- 
thing that  disturbed  the  general  tranquillity.  But  the  case 
presented  itself  to  him  from  points  of  view  which  must  be 
separately  described.^ 

Ancient  laws  existed,  which  forbade  the  practice  of 
non-Eoman  rites,  and  these  laws  had  not  been  repealed ; 
yet  the  course  of  things  tended  to  the  discontinuance   of 

*  Referred  to  in  almost  all  the  Apologies.  *  Tert.  Apol.  40. 

•  Increased  precision  has  been  introduced  into  statements  on  this  subject 
as  the  result  of  recent  investigations.  Besides  the  works  of  Hardy  and 
Neumann,  an  article  by  Mommsen — "Der  Religionsfrevel  nach  romischem 
Recht,"  reproduced  in  Expositor,  July  1893 — is  considered  epoch-making. 
Discussions  by  Ramsay  (Church  in  the  Roman  Empire)  and  by  Harnack 
{Texle  u.  Unters.  xiii.  4,  on  an  edict  ascribed  to  Antoninus  Pius)  have  also 
thrown  light  on  the  subject — Ramsay  especially. 


12  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHUkCH  [a.d. 

prosecutions  on  this  ground ;  and,  practically,  people  who 
used  non-Eoman  rites  were  not  punished  under  the 
emperors  unless  some  additional  reason  existed.  These 
laws  might  have  been  revived  and  made  operative  against 
the  Christians ;  or  new  laws,  directed  specifically  against 
the  alleged  enormities  of  the  Christian  worship,  might  have 
been  enacted.  In  either  case  a  regular  trial  with  well- 
known  formalities  would  have  been  the  method  employed. 
Such  a  trial  was  called  a  judicium.  But  this  course  was 
not  taken.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  produce  an  instance 
of  it.  The  laws  against  sodalitates  or  clubs  were  in  full 
observance  and  application ;  but  neither  were  these  made 
the  basis  of  action  against  the  Christians. 

The  method  adopted  relied  on  general  powers  which  the 
emperors  claimed  as  preservers  of  the  Eoman  peace,  on  guard 
against  forces  that  might  tend  to  disturbance. 

These  may  be  regarded  as  police  powers ;  and  they  were 
wielded  also  by  governors  of  provinces  and  the  prefect  of 
the  city  as  the  emperor's  representatives.  Discretionary 
chastisement  could  be  inflicted,  according  to  the  necessities 
of  the  case,  when  these  functionaries  found  what  appeared 
to  them  to  be  movements  or  tendencies  endangering  the 
common  well-being;  and  the  penalty,  especially  for  the 
obstinate  and  insubordinate,  might  be  death.  Still,  especi- 
ally when  severe  penalties  were  in  question,  it  was  no  doubt 
felt  to  be  important  to  keep  within  the  line  of  approved 
practice.  For  it  was  the  emperor's  discretion  that  was 
exercised,  and  it  had  to  be  used  in  a  manner  likely  to 
secure  his  approbation.  The  process  by  which  a  governor 
satisfied  himself  that  a  case  had  arisen  for  the  exercise  of 
this  corrective  power  was  not  a  judicium,  but  a  cognitio — an 
investigation,  in  which,  with  less  formality,  the  governor 
could  take  plain  common- sense  ways  of  satisfying  his  own 
mind.  He  might  also  use  more  discretion  as  to  acting  or 
not  acting  than  a  judge  could,  who  must  do  right  on  a  cause 
when  once  brought  before  him.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
that  whatever  offence  Christianity  gave,  the  conclusive  reason 
which  justified  a  death  sentence  was  the  Christian  obstinacy 


98-180]  ATTITUDE    OF   GOVERNMENT  13 

which  persisted  in  the  offence  against  authority  and  before 
the  tribunal ;  and  a  governor  could  avoid  giving  the  oppor- 
tunity for  exhibiting  that  final  and  fatal  insubordination. 
Also  a  governor  might  exercise  his  discretion  in  both  ways 
at  once;  some  Christians  being  spared,  while  others  were 
made  examples.  There  was  responsibility  both  ways.  Very 
severe  courses  might  appear  to  the  emperor  unwise  and  ex- 
cessive; or,  by  great  indulgence,  a  governor  might  let  his 
province  get  out  of  hand,  and  accustom  people  to  think 
that  they  might  do  as  they  pleased. 

The  emperors,  all  of  them,  were  careful  not  to  prohibit 
infliction  of  the  extreme  penalty  in  fitting  cases ;  but  some 
of  them  framed  edicts  which  plainly  enough  suggested 
caution  and  forbearance. 

The  general  heads  under  which  this  power  was  exercised 
in  the  case  of  Christians  seem  to  have  been  chiefly  sacri- 
legium  and  majestas,  and  it  was  easy  to  bring  Christians 
under  one  of  these  categories. 

The  mere  fact  that  Christians,  as  we  have  seen,  awoke 
repugnance  and  irritation  in  many  minds,  was  in  itself 
enough  to  dispose  a  Eoman  magistrate  to  hostile  action; 
the  order  and  tranquillity  of  society  were  great  public 
interests,  and  novelties  that  were  troublesome,  and  that 
savoured  of  wilfulness,  were  never  looked  upon  as  entitled 
to  much  toleration.  Besides,  while  Christianity  as  a  body 
of  religious  beliefs  might  not  be  a  matter  of  much  im- 
portance, yet  if  a  Eoman  magistrate  began  to  consider  it, 
first,  as  a  perturbing  social  influence  apt  to  spread, 
secondly,  as  interfering  with  the  religious  sanctions  on 
which  the  system  of  the  empire  rested  (and  even  with 
outward  deference  for  them),  and,  thirdly,  as  creating  an 
obstinacy  of  temper  which  refused  to  give  way  to  admoni- 
tion or  to  punishment,  he  was  naturally  led  to  think  that, 
obscure  and  foolish  as  it  might  seem  to  him,  it  should  be 
treated,  when  it  had  to  be  pubhcly  noticed,  as  beyond  the 
protection  and  permission  of  the  law.  Lastly,  Christianity 
organised  its  votaries  by  a  system  of  regulated  administration. 
It  formed  societies  in  each  place,  and  bound  them  all  together. 


14  THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  [a.d. 

Nothing  could  be  more  contrary  to  Eoman  imperial  ideas 
than  such  organisation,  when  it  took  place  without  sanction 
or  permission  from  the  imperial  authorities.  Putting  al] 
this  together,  we  have  the  case  which  to  the  eye  of  Eoman 
authority  seemed  substantial  enough  to  be  noted  as  against 
the  welfare  of  the  empire,  and  proper  to  be  visited  with 
high  penalties  when  it  was  obstinately  maintained. 

Still,  the  Eoman  authority  was  wielded  generally  by 
experienced  men,  who  did  not  too  readily  arrive  at  con- 
clusions. Christianity  might  be  unpopular,  and  might 
involve  its  adherents  in  collision  with  the  religious  basis 
of  the  State.  Yet  these  Christians  were  seen  to  be  in- 
offensive people;  they  professed  loyalty  to  the  emperor, 
and  prayed  for  him ;  and,  as  the  organising  tendencies  of 
the  Church  came  into  operation  gradually,  they  were  not 
so  noticeable  at  first.  Hence  a  magistrate  might  see 
reasons  for  being  temperate  rather  than  sweeping  in  his 
application  of  the  general  rule.  For  the  most  part, 
governors  aimed  at  getting  Christians  to  submit,  and  not 
unfrequently  they  made  this  effort  in  a  fairly  humane 
spirit;  but  some  of  them  evinced  a  savage  determination 
to  put  down  the  new  religion  by  ruthless  severities, 
applying  torture  to  compel  submission. 

The  situation  as  now  explained  may  render  it  in- 
telligible that  churches  could  exist,  might  continue  and 
hold  property  for  years  together  under  the  eyes  of  the 
authorities,  if  only  the  Christians  abstained  from  forcing 
upon  the  authorities  the  character  of  their  societies.  One 
of  the  forms  of  association  which  even  the  jealous  eye  of 
Eoman  government  regarded  in  a  tolerant  way  was  benefit 
societies,  such,  for  instance,  as  burial  clubs ;  and  there  is 
proof  that  Christians  often  held  property  in  that  character.^ 
In  the  same  way  we  are  to  understand  the  access  of  the 
Christians  to  the  prisons  to  comfort  and  refresh  their 
brethren  who  had  been  seized  with  a  view  to  trial  and 
punishment.     No  doubt,  gaolers  were  paid  by   the   Chris- 

1  It  is  understood  that  secret  societies  among  the  Chinese  of  Singapore 
avail  themselves  at  this  day  of  the  same  disguise. 


98-180]  ATTITUDE   OF   GOVERNMENT  15 

tians  for  their  complacency.  But  it  was  not  inconsistent 
with  a  gaoler's  duty  to  admit  them,  of  course  with  proper 
precautions.  The  visitors  were  friends  of  the  criminal; 
l3ut  the  gaoler  was  not  at  all  bound  to  know,  or  even  to 
think,  that  they  were  criminals  themselves. 

Certificates  could  be  procured  to  the  effect  that  the 
bearer  had  given  proof,  by  sacrificing,  of  his  freedom  from 
ground  of  challenge  on  the  score  of  religion ;  in  short,  that 
he  was  a  good  pagan ;  and  it  must  sometimes  have  been 
convenient  to  be  provided  with  one.  A  specimen  of  such 
a  certificate  turned  up  lately  in  Egypt.  Christians  who 
had  not  sacrificed  could  procure  such  a  certificate  by  favour 
or  bribery,  and  so  escape  trouble.  This  was  reckoned  by 
the  Church  an  act  of  virtual  denial  of  the  faith ;  and  those 
guilty  of  it  {lihellatici)  were  put  under  discipline.  They  are 
not  referred  to,  however,  till  the  third  century. 

It  may  be  convenient  to  describe  here  the  detailed  policy 
in  regard  to  Christians  pursued  by  successive  emperors  of  the 
second  century.  It  has  been  extensively  maintained  that 
Trajan  first  established  the  principle  that  the  persistent 
profession  of  Christianity  apart  from  other  crimes  was 
punishable  with  death.  Mommsen  has  decided  against 
this  view,^  which  is,  indeed,  inconsistent  with  the  docu- 
ments on  which  it  relies.  He  regards  the  practice  as 
settled  from  the  time  of  Nero.  That  seems  to  be  estab- 
lished by  the  unanimous  tradition  of  the  Christians  and 
Dhe  testimony  of  Tacitus  and  Suetonius.^  It  seems  certain 
ilso  that  Christianity,  as  such,  was  punishable  in  the  times 
Df  Vespasian  and  his  sons  (from  a.d.  70).  Domitian 
3specially  was  remembered  by  the  Christians  in  this  con- 
aection.  In  his  time  occurred  the  famous  cases  of  T. 
Flavins  Clemens,  condemned  to  death,  and  of  Flavia 
Domitilla,  relegated  to  an  island.     At  the  same  date  the 

^  See  above,  p.  11,  n.  8. 

*  Tacitus,  Ann.  xv.  44  ;  Suetonius,  Nero,  16.  Ramsay  thinks  that  some 
proof  of  specific  crime  was  required  until  the  time  of  the  emperors  of  the 
Flavian  dynasty,  who  fixed  the  mere  confession  of  the  name  as  suflBcient 
Church  in  Roman  Empire,  p.  252  f. 


16  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

Epistle  of  Clement  to  the  Corinthians^  makes  reference  to 
recent  experiences,  which  had  led  the  minds  of  Eoman  Chris- 
tians to  revert  to  the  horrors  of  Nero's  persecution.  Trajan, 
therefore,  must  be  regarded  merely  as  maintaining  and  regu- 
lating established  principles. 

The  correspondence  of  Pliny  with  Trajan  on  this  sub- 
ject belongs  to  about  the  year  112,  Pliny's  letters  being 
written  from  Amisos  in  the  eastern  part  of  his  province. 
Pliny,  who  had  not  previously  filled  the  post  of  governor,  or 
of  prefect  of  the  city,  had  no  experience  of  Christian  causes, 
and  wished  to  be  guided — apparently  with  a  desire  to  be 
allowed  some  discretion  on  the  side  of  mercy.  Trajan's  reply 
is  temperate  and  brief.  Christians  should  not  be  sought  for, 
nor  should  they  be  cited  on  the  ground  of  anonymous  accusa- 
tions. If  they  prove  amenable  to  authority,  and  will  sacri- 
fice when  required,  they  are  to  be  dismissed ;  but  persistent 
obstinacy  in  the  face  of  warning  is  to  incur  punishment, 
i.e.  death.  These  principles  regulate  the  procedure  under 
Trajan's  two  successors.  Under  Trajan  are  placed  the  martyr- 
doms at  Jerusalem  of  Simeon,  son  of  Klopas,  a  relation  of  the 
Lord  (perhaps  about  a.d.  106),  and  of  Ignatius,  bishop  of 
Antioch,  who  suffered  at  Kome  (a.d.  115 — unless  Harnack's 
indication  of  a  possible  date  some  years  later  is  accepted). 

Hadrian  was  a  man  of  intelligence  and  culture,  and  of 
restless  curiosity.  He  noticed  Christianity  as  an  element 
in  the  religious  ferment  of  the  time,  but  with  no  par- 
ticular attention  or  respect.  To  him,  however,  is  ascribed 
a  rescript  to  Minucius  Fundanus,  the  true  scope  of  which 
seems  to  be  to  repress  tumultuary  popular  demands 
directed  against  the  Christians,  and  to  enforce  regular  and 
responsible  procedure.  It  does  not  really  alter  the  direc- 
tions given  by  Trajan,  though  perhaps  the  language  sug- 
gests to  governors  a  mild  use  of  their  discretion.^     Various 

1 1  Clem.  Rom.  i.  1. 

'  "Si  quis  .  .  .  probat  adversum  leges  agere  memoratos  homines  .  .  , 
supplicia  statues."  Justin  Martyr  is  early  and  good  authority  for  the  edict. 
The  Christians  construed  the  rather  vague  language  as  relieving  them  from 
punishment  unless  specific  moral  crimes  were  proved. 


98-180]  ATTITUDE   OF   GOVERNMENT  17 

martyrdoms  are  dated  under  Hadrian ;  among  others,  that 
of  Telesphorus  of  Eome.  Antoninus  Pius  also  found  it 
necessary  to  rebuke  the  riotous  demands  for  Christian 
victims  by  edicts  of  a  similar  tenor.^  To  his  reign  seems 
to  belong  the  first  surviving  plea  for  just  treatment  of 
Christians  in  the  Apology  of  Aristides. 

Marcus  Aurelius  of  all  the  emperors  was  most  anxious 
to  fulfil  the  ideal  of  duty,  and  most  willing  to  sacrifice 
himself  in  the  process.  Yet  under  him  persecution  of 
Christians  became  more  common  and  more  severe.  Either 
he  authorised,  or  he  did  not  restrain  these  severities.  He 
was  not  ignorant  how  the  Christians  suffered,  for  he  speaks 
of  their  patience  as  something  fanatical  and  debased;  and 
perhaps  we  must  say  that,  while  he  would  have  dealt 
gently  with  any  wrong  to  himself,  he  could  be  hard  and 
bitter  against  the  representatives  of  a  malefica  superstition 
which  he  regarded  as  one  of  the  influences  that  under- 
mined the  ancient  Eoman  strength.  In  his  time  we  meet 
with  two  points  of  practice  not  authorised  by  Trajan, — 
the  Christians  begin  to  be  sought  out  by  the  authorities, 
and  tortures  are  applied  to  overcome  their  fidelity.  Still, 
all  this  was  in  the  governor's  discretion.  Justin  Martyr 
at  Eome,  and  Polycarp  at  Smyrna,^  are  the  most  remark- 
able single  sufferers.  They  simply  suffered  death,  the  one 
by  the  sword,  the  other  by  fire.  But  the  narrative  of  the 
martyrs  of  Lyons  and  Vienne  in  Gaul  (Eus.  Hist.  Eccl.  v.  8) 
opens  for  us  those  scenes  of  incredible  cruelty,  vanquished 
by  superhuman  endurance,  which  meet  us  too  often  during 
the  two  succeeding  centuries.  Evidently  a  savage  temper 
had    been    aroused  which  spread  from  the    people  to  the 

*  With  respect  to  the  rescript,  VLpbi  rb  lS,oLvhv  t^s  'Aa/as,  see  Hamack, 
Texte  u.  Unters.  xiii.  4. 

^  Justin  died  perhaps  A.D.  165.  Poly  carp's  death  used  to  be  placed  about 
166.  An  interesting  discussion  of  Waddington's  set  the  date  back  to  155, 
a  result  accepted  by  great  authorities  (Lipsius,  Gebhardt,  Lightfoot,  Zahn, 
etc.).  Latterly  it  seems  to  have  turned  out  that  Waddington's  argument 
fails  in  one  of  its  main  steps  ;  yet  the  conclusion  remains  in  all  probability 
true  that  Polycarp  suffered  on  23rd  February  155.  See  Harnack,  Chran.  der 
aZtehristl.  LU.  L  355. 


18  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH  [a.d. 

magistrates,  and  which  set  itself  to  break  the  Christians 
down  by  all  extremities  of  pain  and  shame.^ 

In  the  reign  of  Gommodus  (180-192),  who  reproduced 
many  of  the  characteristics  of  Nero,  the  general  system 
continued  unchanged.  Apollonius,  a  man  of  culture,  and, 
according  to  Jerome,  a  senator,  suffered  at  Kome ;  and  the 
first  known  African  persecution,  that  of  the  Scillitan  martyrs, 
fell  perhaps  in  his  first  year.  Yet  an  impression  that  the 
reign  of  Gommodus  was  more  favourable  to  the  Christians 
than  the  preceding  one  is  distinctly  indicated  in  the  Christian 
traditions.  A  ruler  who  was  open  to  foreign  superstition, 
and  who  neglected  public  interests,  might  very  possibly 
press  less  hardly  on  the  Christians  than  one  who  cared 
for  those  interests  on  the  old  Eoman  principles.  But, 
besides,  we  learn  from  the  Refutation  of  Hippolytus  (ix.  12), 
that  Marcia,  the  well-known  mistress  of  Commodus,  was  in 
some  sense  a  Christian  (</)iXo^eo?),  and  exerted  her  influence 
effectively,  in  one  instance  at  least,  to  relieve  and  set  free 
Christian  sufferers.^ 

The  main  point  favourable  to  the  Christians  in  the 
action  of  Trajan  and  his  two  successors  is,  that  they  re- 
quired the  appearance  of  specific  accusers.  Influences 
which  might  deter  men  from  appearing  in  this  character 
are  specified  by  Kamsay  {Church  in  Roman  Empire,  p. 
325).  Still,  it  seems  likely  that  the  attempt  to  extract 
money  from  the  Christians  by  threats  of  accusation  would, 
in  the  circumstances,  become  a  common  form  of  extortion. 
We  do  not  hear  much  of  it  in  these  three  reigns,  but  it 
became  common  in  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  when 
informers  against  the  Christians  were  encouraged. 

The  Jews 

The  reconquest  of  Palestine  and  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem by  the  Eoman  armies  (a.d.  70)  had  been  accompanied 

^  Serious  and  prolonged  calamities  of  war  and  pestilence  are  supposed  to 
account  for  special  exasperation  of  the  popular  antipathy  to  the  Christians. 
2  Marcia's  relations  to  Commodus  might  be  contemplated  by  the  Chris- 


98-180]  THE   JEWS  19 

by  frightful  losses  and  humiliations  to  the  conquered  people ; 
masses  of  them  were  slaughtered  or  sold  into  slavery ;  their 
whole  territory  was  confiscated  ;  and  their  religious  prejudices 
(heretofore  humoured  by  the  Eomans)  were,  in  Palestine  at 
least,  trampled  upon  and  outraged.  Still,  this  did  not 
generally  or  seriously  affect  the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion; 
and  even  those  who  remained  in  Palestine  began,  after  a 
time,  to  experience  more  tolerant  treatment. 

But  the  spirit  of  the  race  was  not  yet  broken.  In 
the  days  of  Trajan  (a.d.  115)  Jewish  insurrections,  almost 
incredibly  destructive,  took  place  in  Egypt,  Cyrenaica,  and 
Cyprus.  And  when  Hadrian,  after  some  indications  of 
favour,  took  steps  which  threatened  to  paganise  yet  more 
thoroughly  Jerusalem  and  the  holy  places,  one  more  great 
uprising  under  Bar  Cochba  (132—135),  as  Messiah,  sub- 
verted the  Eoman  authority  in  Palestine,  and  was  sup- 
pressed only  slowly  and  by  great  efforts.  The  suppression, 
however,  was  complete.  Palestine  was  laid  waste;  Jeru- 
salem, under  the  name  of  ^lia  Capitolina,  became  a 
Gentile  city,  equipped  with  all  the  pomp  of  pagan  worship. 
Circumcision,  Sabbath  keeping,  and  instruction  in  the  law 
were  prohibited  everywhere ;  and  no  Jew  might  enter  Jeru- 
salem. This  last  rule  contiuued  long  in  force.  The  other 
prohibitions  were  soon  withdrawn,  or  fell  into  desuetude. 

A  centre  for  the  dispersed  nationality  arose  in  the 
Sanhedrim  of  Eabbis  and  teachers  of  the  law  which  formed 
itself  at  Jamnia,  and  was  afterwards  transferred  to  Tiberias. 
Here  at  the  end  of  the  second  century  the  traditional 
teaching  began  to  fix  itself  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  as  the 
Mishnah  (^'repetition").  Further  discussions,  distinctions,  and 
inferences  embodied  themselves  in  the  Palestinian  Gemara 
{"completion"),  about  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  and 
the  Babylonian  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth,  both  in 
Aramaic. 

From   the    time   of    the   destruction   of   Jerusalem    by 

tians  as  on  her  side  the  nearest  approach  to  marriage  of  which  the  Roman 
ideas  and  laws  admitted.  While  questionable,  it  might  not  appear  to  hav^ 
the  character  of  plain  immorality.     Lagarde,  Bel.  Jur.  pp.  121-124. 


20  THE   ANCIENT    CATHOLIC    CHURCH  [a.d. 

Titus  it  must  have  been  difficult  for  Jewish  Christians, 
even  for  those  who  clung  most  to  the  law,  to  maintain 
friendly  relations  with  official  or  devout  Judaism;  and 
after  the  war  of  Bar  Cochba  it  became,  as  a  rule,  im- 
possible. No  Christian  could  support  the  movement  of 
that  warlike  Messiah.  Christians  were  henceforth  de- 
nounced by  Jews  as  apostates ;  and  a  formal  curse  directed 
against  them  became  a  tradition  of  Jewish  worship.  Authori- 
tative Judaism,  of  the  schools  and  of  the  synagogues,  finally 
shut  its  doors  against  all  kinds  of  Christians. 

But  a  calmer  Judaism  existed  which  took  various  forms. 
The  earlier  history  has  shown  how  Jews  in  Egypt  and  the 
west  were  influenced  by  the  Greek  learning  and  specula- 
tion, and  how  those  who  lived  eastward  of  the  Jordan 
were  attracted  by  Oriental  forms  of  belief.  Even  when 
Judaism  was  strong  and  hopeful,  it  was  not  reckoned 
heretical  for  Jewish  minds  to  be  hospitable  to  a  certain 
extent  to  such  influences.  But  now  the  process  was 
likely  to  go  further.  In  the  case  of  many,  at  least,  con- 
fidence in  Judaism,  as  it  had  been,  was  profoundly  shaken, 
and  a  craving  for  new  combinations  was  felt. 

As  regards  the  Christian  Church,  the  effect  of  these 
events  was  to  fuse  the  believers  from  the  circumcision 
and  those  from  among  the  Gentiles  still  more  completely 
into  one  community.  Almost  everywhere  this  process  had 
gone  rapidly  on.  Already  the  second  generation  and  the 
third  had  grown  up  under  the  general  system  of  the  Church 
and  under  the  influence  of  its  enthusiasm.  Now,  anything 
like  aggressive  Judaising  could  have  little  meaning  and  no 
future;  and  Judaism  more  emphatically  than  ever  meant 
hatred  and  scorn  towards  every  kind  of  Christianity. 

Here  and  there,  however,  but  chiefly  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Palestine,  communities  of  Christians  still  existed, 
of  Hebrew  descent,  or  formed  under  specially  Hebrew 
influences,  which  could  not  yet  resign  themselves  to  be 
Christians  merely.  Two  classes  of  them,  not  always  very 
clearly  distinguished,  are  indicated:  one,  which  claimed 
for  its  members  the   right  to  keep   the   law,  but  did  not 


98-180]  THE   JEWS  21 

seek  to  impose  that  yoke  on  Gentile  Christians ;  another, 
which  insisted  that  the  law  was  binding  on  all  believers. 
The  former  could  be  owned  as  brethren ;  the  latter  cut 
themselves  off  from  fellowship,  and  became  alienated  from 
the  Church  in  doctrine  {e.g.  as  to  our  Lord's  higher  nature) 
as  well  as  in  practice.  Both  became  separated  from  other 
Christians,  ceased  to  exert  influence,  and  sank  into  narrow 
and  obscure  sectarianism.  But  they  lingered  on  till  the 
fourth  century  at  least,  and  eventually  the  name  of  Nazar- 
enes  was  applied  to  the  first  class,  and  that  of  Ebionites  ("  the 
poor ")  to  the  second.  It  is  not  proved  that  these  names 
were  so  distinguished  during  our  first  period.  Both  words 
no  doubt  had  been  applied  to  the  early  disciples  of  Jesus.^ 

Besides  these,  we  must  allow  for  churches  in  which 
the  sentiment  of  the  old  Palestinian  Christianity,  its  ways, 
predilections,  and  sympathies  were  partially  maintained,  and 
presented  a  type  of  Christianity  which  without  intrenching 
itself  in  permanent  points  of  conscience,  lingered  on,  and 
only  gradually  merged  itself  in  the  common  Christianity 
of  the  Church.  Churches  where  the  kinsmen  of  Jesus 
according  to  the  flesh  were  held  in  honour,  and  traditions 
concerning  James  were  cherished,  would  certainly  have 
many  interesting  features  which  cannot  be  recovered  now. 

Distinct  from  these  is  a  form  of  opinion  the  adherents 
of  which  were  called  Elkesaites,  and  they  probably  existed 
as  a  sect.  Some  suppose  them  to  derive  especially  from 
the  Essenian  type  of  Judaism.  They  recognised  Jesus  as 
the  Messias,  rejected  sacrifices,  retained  circumcision  and  the 
Sabbath,  and  made  much  of  purifying  washings.  Jesus, 
according  to  them,  is  an  incarnation  of  Adam,  or  of  the 
ideal  man  ;  and  so  Christianity  is  a  republication  of  the 
original  religion,  which  has  again  and  again  been  corrupted 
and  again  and  again  restored.  Modern  historians  recognise 
the  features  of  this  teaching  in  the  Clementine  writings.^ 

*  The  Fathers  derived  the  name  Ebionite  from  a  supposed  leader  called 
Ebion.     Hilgenfeld  has  supported  this  view,  KetzergescMchte,  p.  424. 

^  Homilies  (Lagarde,  1865),  Recognitions  (Gcisdorf,  1838),  Epitome 
(Dressel,   1859).      The   Homilies  appeared  first  in  the  Patres  Apostolici  of 


22  THE   ANCIENT    CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

In  these  a  romance  of  the  wanderings  of  a  Eoman,  Clement, 
in  search  of  lost  friends,  is  made  the  framework  of  the 
doctrine.  Peter  appears  in  conflict  with  Simon  Magus, 
and  maintains  against  him  that  the  religion  of  Adam  and 
Moses,  which  had  been  corrupted,  comes  to  light  again  in 
Christ,  who  is  an  incarnation  of  the  same  spirit.  It  is  a 
Jewish  or  Ebionitic  Gnosticism,  set  up  against  the  Gentile 
Gnosticism  which  is  imputed  to  Simon :  at  the  same  time, 
Simon  is  represented  with  traits  which  are  intended  to 
identify  him  with  the  Apostle  Paul. 

It  continued  to  be  felt  needful  to  guard  Christians 
against  being  perplexed  by  the  arguments  of  Jews.^  And 
efforts  to  propagate  a  Judaising  Christianity  occurred 
here  and  there  in  the  early  part  of  the  second  century. 
But  the  mass  of  the  Church  remained  unaffected  by  any 
Judaising  propaganda ;  and  the  mass  of  those  whose  fathers, 
belonging  to  the  circumcision,  had  become  Christians  under 
apostolic  teaching,  remained  in  the  fellowship  of  the 
general  Christian  Church,  and  shared  in  the  common 
Christianity.  Christianity,  with  whatever  local  variations, 
is  seen  everywhere  receiving  and  prizing  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, yet  everywhere  marking  itself  off  from  Judaism; 
everywhere  shaping  its  thought  in  ways  that  are  not  very 
congenial  to  the  teaching  of  Paul,  yet  everywhere  honour- 
ing and  quoting  him.  A  great  influence  from  the  Old 
Testament  preparation  is  visible  in  the  early  Christianity, 
but  it  extends  to  the  whole  Gentile  Christianity  (excepting 
the  Gnostics  and  Marcion),  and  not  merely  to  a  Jewish 
party  in  it.  The  view  that  a  distinctively  Jewish  party 
carried  on  into  the  second  century  the  flag  of  Judaism  as 
against  a  Pauline  or  Gentile  version  of  the  faith,  and 
powerfully  affected  the  subsequent  development,  can  be 
maintained    only    by    signalising    as    distinctively   Jewish, 

Cotelerius,  1672.  Attention  was  drawn  to  them  by  Neander,  and  Baup 
afterwards  laid  stress  on  the  Clementines  as  supporting  his  conception  of 
early  Christianity.  The  Homilus  preserve  most  distinctly  the  heretical 
element ;  see  article  (Clementine  Literature)  Ly  Professor  Salmon  of  Dublin 
in  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography. 
^  So,  first,  Barnabas,  c.  2  f. 


98-180]  EXTENSION   OF   CHRISTIANITY  23 

features^  which  were  common  to  the  Christianity  of  the 
whole  Church.  The  question  certainly  remains,  however, 
whether  the  whole  Church  may  not  by  degrees  have  Juda- 
ised  in  the  way  in  which  it  construed  its  own  religion; 
whether,  beginning  in  the  Spirit,  it  did  not  seek  perfection 
in  the  flesh. 


Extension  of  Christianity 

Christian  writers  of  the  second  century  and  the  be- 
ginning of  the  third  speak  in  glowing  terms  of  the  rapid 
multiplication  of  Christians  among  all  races  of  the  empire, 
and  also  beyond  it.^  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the 
sincerity  of  their  statements;  but  these  are  necessarily 
vague ;  and  the  most  truthful  men  are  apt  to  overrate 
and  overstate  the  amount  of  adherence  to  their  own 
cause,  especially  when  they  see  in  the  progress  of  it  some- 
thing wonderful  and  divine.  Historians  therefore  have 
felt  it  needful  to  check  general  statements  by  a  close 
scrutiny  of  details,  so  far  as  these  are  accessible  to  our 
knowledge. 

In  Palestine  and  its  neighbourhood  Christians  no  doubt 
continued  to  be  numerous.  Here  the  conspicuous  churches 
were  in  Csesarea  (Stratonis  Turris),  the  capital  of  the  province, 
and  at  Jerusalem  or  ^lia  Capitolina,  where  the  Church 
had  now  assumed  essentially  the  type  of  Gentile  Christianity. 
Palestine  is  flanked  on  either  side  by  Egypt  and  by  Syria. 
In  both  regions  the  influence  of  the  new  religion  on  many 
ardent  minds  is  illustrated  by  the  wealth  of  Gnostic  specula- 
tion which  flows  out  from  both  quarters  during  the  second 
century.  In  Egypt,  Alexandria,  with  its  manifold  popula- 
tion, Jewish  and  Gentile,  its  commerce  and  its  schools  of 
learning,  became  also  a  great  centre  of  Christian  thought 

^  Eeference  is  here  made  to  the  Tubingen  hypothesis.  Evolved  by  a 
man  of  Baur's  extraordinary  powers,  that  hypothesis  no  doubt  freshened  the 
whole  field  of  investigation.  On  its  relation  to  the  facts  Ritsehl's  AUkatho- 
lische  Kirche,  2nd  ed.  1857,  is  still  well  worth  reading. 

*  Ad  Diogn.  7;  Just.  Mart.  Try  ph.  c.  117;  Tert.  Apol.  37,  ad  Scap. 
15. 


24  THE   ANCIENT    CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

and  action.  Tradition  reckons  the  evangelist  Mark  as 
the  father  of  its  Church  life.  The  beginning,  no  doubt, 
was  among  Jews  and  Greeks.  But  for  the  native  Coptic 
population,  also,  it  became  necessary  to  prepare  a  transla- 
tion of  the  New  Testament,  at  least  as  early  as  the  third 
century.  Westwards  of  Egypt  in  Cyrenaica,  eastwards 
in  Arabia,  Christianity  must  have  existed  in  the  second 
century.  Tradition  ascribes  the  origin  of  Arabian  Chris- 
tianity to  apostolic  labourers — Matthew  and  Bartholomew. 
Before  the  end  of  the  second  century  Pantsenus,  the  first 
conspicuous  teacher  in  the  Alexandrian  catechetical  school, 
is  said  to  have  gone  as  a  missionary  to  India;  but  the 
word  as  then  used  might  signify  Yemen,  or  parts  adjacent 
to  Yemen,  either  in  Asia  or  in  Africa. 

On  the  other  side,  in  Syria,  the  wealthy  and  luxurious 
city  of  Antioch  was  also  the  seat  of  the  leading  Christian 
church.  From  hence  the  gospel  spread  far  east  and  south, 
and  before  the  end  of  the  second  century  Christian  martyrs 
are  heard  of  on  the  Parthian  borders.  In  this  Syrian 
region  Tatian  laboured  in  the  latter  half  of  the  second 
century,  and  left  his  mark  durably  on  the  literature  of 
many  Syrian  churches.  A  romantic  Christian  interest 
attaches  to  Edessa,  the  capital  of  a  kingdom  created  under 
Macedonian  influences.  Here  a  Christian  king  (Abgar 
Bar  Manu)  reigned  from  a.d.  176.  The  story  ran  that 
an  earlier  king,  Abgarus,  who  was  our  Lord's  contemporary, 
had  written  to  our  Lord,  and  had  received  a  reply ;  and 
that,  in  accordance  with  a  promise  contained  in  it,  Thaddeus 
was  afterwards  sent  by  the  Apostle  Thomas  to  carry  on 
the  work  at  Edessa. 

In  Asia  Minor,  Christianity  had  made  very  consider- 
able progress  even  in  the  interior  (notably  in  Phrygia), 
but  was  probably  strongest  in  the  western  sections,  where 
Ephesus  and  Smyrna  were  important  churches.  The  most 
remarkable  testimony  on  many  accounts  is  that  given  in 
reference  to  Bithynia  in  Pliny's  letter  to  Trajan  (98-117). 
Christianity  had  spread  over  the  province  and  among  all 
conditions  of  people,  so  that  the  worship  of  the  temples 


98-180]  EXTENSION   OF   CHRISTIANITY  25 

was  greatly  neglected.  It  may  be  true  that  of  the  state 
of  things  thus  described  Christians  constituted  the  earnest 
side,  while  Gentile  scepticism  and  indifference  constituted 
the  other.  But  the  Christian  element  was  strong  and 
conspicuous.  One  thing  should  be  noted.  We  are  apt  to 
assume  that  Christian  societies  formed  themselves  at  this 
time  only  in  larger  and  smaller  towns,  and  hardly  reached 
the  country  districts.  But  according  to  Pliny,  in  Bithynia 
country  and  town  alike  had  become  full  of  Christians. 

In  Macedonia  and  Greece,  as  might  be  expected,  the 
Christianity  planted  by  Paul  had  spread  and  formed  new 
churches.  For  the  West  generally,  the  church  of  Kome 
was  already  beyond  comparison  the  most  eminent  and 
influential.  It  numbered  among  its  members  representa- 
tives of  distinguished  Eoman  families,  including  the  Flavian 
house  itself.  The  Greek  language  as  yet  prevailed  in  the  use 
of  the  Eoman  Christians ;  and  in  this  way  facilities  existed 
for  easy  exchange  of  thought  and  feeling  with  Eastern 
Christianity,  which  became  more  limited  at  a  later  date. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  same  fact  rather  indicates  a  less 
successful  propaganda,  as  yet,  among  the  native  Italian 
people. 

The  African  province  in  all  probability  received  its 
Christianity  from  Eome,  and  the  African  church  from  the 
first  thought  and  spoke  in  Latin.  Punic  speech  lived  on 
among  the  common  people,  and  use  was  made  of  it  for 
Christian  purposes,  but  little  durable  trace  of  this  is  left  in 
history.  The  earliest  African  Christianity,  probably,  was 
among  the  Italian  settlers,  who  were  also  the  influential 
class.  Very  early  in  the  third  century  African  bishoprics 
had  become  numerous.  It  is  likely  on  various  accounts 
that  Christian  communities  existed  in  Spain  in  the  second 
century  or  even  in  the  first,  but  there  is  a  want  of  historical 
proof  of  it.  In  Gaul,  on  the  other  hand,  we  know  that  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  second  century  Christian  communities 
existed  in  Lyons  and  Vienne.  This  Christianity  traced  its 
origin  not  so  much  to  Eome  as  to  Asia  Minor. 

In  regard  to  Britain  and  other  outlying  regions  of  the 


26  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH       [a.d.  98-180 

empire,  statements  have  come  down  which  are  either 
rhetorical  and  vague,  or  too  late  to  be  relied  upon.  In 
regard  to  those  regions,  therefore,  nothing  can  be  affirmed. 
Yet  the  probability  is  strong  that  a  force  so  expansive 
as  early  Christianity  proved  itself  to  be,  may  have  reached 
those  regions  in  the  second  century. 

In  reference  to  the  progress  of  Christianity,  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  our  information  is  far  from  complete.  Vigorous 
church  life  breaks  on  our  view  in  the  African  province  at 
the  end  of  the  second  century:  of  its  previous  history  we 
know  little.  Similar  remarks  apply  to  other  regions  —  to 
Gaul,  to  Spain,  even  in  a  measure  to  Alexandria.  Speci- 
ally sensible  is  the  lack  of  statistics.  How  many  Chris- 
tians were  there  in  the  empire  at  the  end  of  the  second 
century,  how  many  in  the  middle  of  the  third,  how  many 
in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth?  We  have  to  content 
ourselves  with  guesses.  Gibbon  estimated  the  Christians 
of  Kome  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century  at  50,000, 
perhaps  a  twentieth  of  the  whole  population  of  the  city. 
Over  the  empire  he  conjectured  that,  say  in  310,  Christians 
might  be  five  per  cent,  of  the  population.  Strong  reasons 
can  be  pleaded  for  reckoning  this  estimate  too  low.^  Cer- 
tainly the  proportion  might  be,  must  have  been,  consider- 
ably higher  in  particular  cities  and  regions.  However 
this  may  be,  in  most  places  the  Christians  proper  are  to 
be  thought  of  as  surrounded  by  a  large  number  of  persons 
who  were  attracted,  impressed,  in  some  degree  influenced, 
but  not  yet  won.  Outside  of  these  stood  the  great  mass 
of  the  indifferent  and  the  hostile,  capable  of  being  stirred, 
at  times,  into  wrath  and  hatred. 

1  Orr's  Neglected  Factors  in  the  Study  of  the  Early  Progress  of  ChristianUy, 
Edinburgli,  1899. 


CHAPTEE   II 

Thb  Early  Churches 

Liter ATDKE.— See  Appendix. 

If  we  would  represent  to  ourselves  the  physiognomy  of  the 
Christian  Church  in  the  second  century,  we  must  think  of 
a  number  of  societies,  existing  in  towns  and  villages  (but 
by  no  means  as  yet  in  every  town)  over  a  great  part  of  the 
Eoman  Empire,  and  in  some  places  beyond  that  limit. 
These  communities  varied  much  in  size,  sometimes  perhaps 
not  exceeding  a  dozen  or  two  of  people.^  Wherever  they 
existed  they  joined  in  common  faith  and  worship,  and  they 
conceived  themselves  to  be  decisively  set  apart  by  a  divine 
calling  to  a  new  life.  They  referred  their  own  existence 
as  churches  to  the  interposition  of  Christ,  and  to  the  call 
proceeding  from  Him,  administered  by  the  apostles  and  by 
those  who  heard  them.  Amid  the  inevitable  varieties  of 
circumstance  and  attainment,  all  these  communities  have 
common  features  of  organisation,  of  worship,  and  of 
Christian  faith  and  practice.  They  exist  independently ,2 — 
so  far,  therefore,  little  republics, — each  regulating  its  own 
affairs.  As  yet  no  other  plan  would  have  been  natural  or 
practicable.  Everywhere,  indeed,  ties  were  owned  which 
bound  all  churches  (as  all  Christians)  together,  as  well  as 
duties  which  each  owed  to  each.  Still,  for  most  of  the 
period  no  authoritative  system  existed  by  which  those  ties 

^  A  provision  for  electing  a  bishop  in  places  where  twelve  male  voters 
could  not  be  found,  probably  comes  down  from  times  comparatively  early. 
(Aiarayal  16  in  Lagarde,  Bel.  Jur.  p.  77.) 

'  This  mnst  be  the  general  statement,  even  if  we  allow  for  little  groups 
of  worshippers  who  clung  to  the  nearest  large  church,  and  identified  them- 
■elves  with  it. 

27 


28  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

and  duties  should  be  expressed  and  regulated.  Local 
councils  of  groups  of  churches  do  not  appear  till  the 
period  is  closing.^  It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to 
suppose  that  influences  were  not  at  work  tending  to 
intercourse,  and  to  the  maintenance  of  agreement.  At 
this  time  the  facilities  for  travel  throughout  the  empire 
were  great,  and  they  were  very  freely  used.^  Christians, 
in  virtue  of  the  impulse  given  to  their  energies  by  the 
new  faith,  were  likely  to  take  a  large  share  in  the  general 
stir.  In  particular,  some  Christians  felt  impelled  to  travel 
much  through  the  churches,  and  must  have  promoted  a 
constant  circulation  of  ideas  and  of  sentiments.^ 

Even  apart  from  these  influences,  the  recognition  of 
the  unity  which  comprehended  all  the  churches  was  amply 
secured.  All  the  churches  felt  that  they  had  been  called 
into  existence  by  the  same  will  and  grace  of  God, — all 
were  subject  to  the  ordinances  of  Christ, — all  claimed  a 
position  which  was  really  supernatural,  and  was  the  same 
for  all, — and  all  the  churches  owned  the  presence  of  the 
same  Spirit  of  Christ.  Hence  not  only  the  words  of  the 
Master,  but  all  accredited  teachings  of  the  Spirit  were  to 
be  everywhere  received.  So  the  thought  of  the  one  Church 
pervades  all  the  churches.  Sometimes  this  Church  seems 
to  be  the  empirical  whole  of  Christians  then  in  the  world, 
of  which  each  church  claimed  to  be  a  part ;  sometimes  it 
is  the  future  company  of  the  saved,  by  and  by  to  emerge 
in  its  proper  lustre,  clear  of  mixture  and  defilement; 
sometimes  it  is  an  eternal  divine  ideal,  realising  itself  so 
far  in  all  true  churches.  The  two  latter  thoughts  unite  in 
passages  like  2  Clem.  14:  "  So,  my  brethren,  doing  the 
will  of  God  our  Father  we  shall  be  of  the  Church  that  is 
First,  that  is  spiritual,  that  was  created  before  the  Sun  and 
Moon.  .  .  .  Let  us  choose  then  to  be  of  the  Church  of 
Life,  that  we  may  be  saved."  This  ideal  Church  is  some- 
times conceived  vividly  as  a  spiritual  personality  or  form, 

^  In  connection  with  the  Montanist  movement. 
2  Zahn,  Skizzen,  c.  v.,  Erl.  and  Leipz.  1894. 
•  See  below  on  Prophets,  Apostles,  and  Teachers. 


98-180]  THE   EARLY   CHURCHES  29 

existing  somehow  independently,  but  imparting  its  own 
identity  to  each  separate  church  and  to  each  Christian  in 
it.  There  was  therefore  really  no  risk  of  the  churches 
losing  hold  of  the  idea  of  the  unity ;  but  there  were  possi- 
bilities of  practical  divergence  and  misunderstanding,  and 
specific  safeguards  with  respect  to  these  had  hardly  yet 
been  devised.  The  dividing  forces  will  be  referred  to  in 
another  place.  It  is  enough  to  say,  for  the  present,  that 
by  the  end  of  the  second  century  an  onlooker  could 
recognise  various  sects  of  Christians,  who  distinguished 
themselves  from  one  another :  "  They  divide  and  split,  and 
everyone  would  have  his  own  following  " ;  and  yet  he  could 
note  that,  in  contrast  to  those  sects,  which  were  mostly 
small  and  local,  a  community  of  churches  rose  into  view 
which  was  fairly  distinguishable  as  the  "  great  Church."  ^ 

The  social  aspect  of  a  Christian  church  must  have  been 
in  many  cases  very  like  that  of  a  small  dissenting  con- 
gregation in  an  English  town  where  dissent  is  feeble. 
Where  the  believing  community  was  very  small  it  ceased 
in  a  manner  to  be  visible  at  all.  Where,  on  the  contrary, 
it  was  large,  as  in  Antioch  or  Eome,  the  necessities  of  the 
time  might  lead  to  the  congregation  meeting,  for  many 
purposes,  or  for  considerable  periods,  in  dispersed  groups.^ 
Facilities  for  disunion  might  hence  arise,  if  strong  individual 
views  and  tendencies  came  to  play  upon  the  situation. 

Our  conception  erf  the  Christian  meetings  must  be  based 
chiefly  on  Pliny,  the  Didache,  and  Justin  Martyr.  Pliny 
gathered,  as  he  tells  the  emperor,  that  the  Christians  had 
been  in  use  to  meet  on  a  fixed  day  before  sunrise,  when 
they  sang  a  hymn  to  Christ  as  to  a  God,  and  bound  them- 
selves by  an  oath  (sacramento)  to  commit  no  wickedness. 
They  met  again  at  a  later  hour  and  took  food  together; 
but  the  later  meeting  had  latterly  been  abandoned  by 
some  of  his  witnesses  in  deference  to  the  imperial  prohibi- 
tion of  clubs.  Some  of  the  persons  examined  by  Pliny  had 
renounced  Christianity ;  but  all  alike  testified  to  the  moral 

^  Celsus  in   Orig.   contr,    Cels.  iii.    9,    10;  v.    59.      Celsus  wrote  about 
A.D.  176-180.  *  Justin  Martyr,  Acts  of  Martyrdom,  8. 


30  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH  [a.d. 

purity  of  Christian  manners.  Cross-examination  and  torture 
brought  out  nothing  inconsistent  with  this — somewhat, 
apparently,  to  Pliny's  surprise. 

From  the  Didache  we  learn  that  in  the  churches  whose 
practice  it  represents,  in  the  Lord's  day  meeting  they  broke 
bread  and  gave  thanks,  but  first  they  were  enjoined  to 
confess  their  transgressions,  that  their  offering  might  be 
pure;  and  those  at  enmity  were  to  seek  reconciliation. 
Also  those  who  were  plainly  doing  wrong  were  to  be  denied 
fellowship  until  they  repented.  In  the  direction  for  the 
eucharist,  brief  forms  of  prayer  are  suggested,  first  with 
the  cup,  and  then  with  the  bread,  and  a  longer  prayer  of 
thanksgiving  follows;  but  a  prophet  may  give  thanks  in 
what  terms  he  pleases.  It  seems  to  be  implied  that  the 
administration  was  connected  with  the  social  meal  which 
had  acquired  the  name  of  an  Agape.  Life,  knowledge,  the 
hope  of  immortality,  the  gift  of  spiritual  food  and  drink, 
and  life  eternal  through  God's  Son,  are  the  blessings  com- 
memorated ;  and  the  deliverance  of  the  Church,  her  perfect- 
ing, and  her  gathering  from  the  four  winds  into  God's 
kingdom,  are  earnestly  sought.  "  Let  grace  come,  and  let 
this  world  pass  away."^  Fasting  was  to  be  observed  on 
Wednesday  and  Friday,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  to  be  used 
three  times  daily. 

Justin  Martyr  ^  says  that  on  "  Sunday  "  Christians  hold 
meetings,  and  the  memoirs  of  the  apostles  and  writings  of 
prophets  are  read,  as  time  allows.  "  When  the  reader 
ceases,  he  who  presides  exhorts  to  follow  what  is  so  excellent. 
Then  we  rise  together  and  offer  up  prayers.  .  .  .  And 
when  prayer  is  ended  bread  is  presented,  and  wine  with 
water;  and  the  president  offers  prayers  and  also  thanks- 
givings, according  to  his  ability;  and  the  people  assent, 
saying,  *Amen.'     Then  distribution  and  reception  of  that 

^  It  must  not  be  inferred  that  no  other  exercises  of  worship  and  teaching 
were  contemplated  as  proper  in  the  Lord's  day  service.  Tlie  writer  of  the 
Didache  felt  it  important  to  regulate  the  eucharistic  part ;  most  likely  he 
conceived  that  what  else  was  in  use  might  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  the 
congregation  and  its  guides. 

«  Justin  Martyr,  Apol,  i.  61,  62,  65-67. 


98-180]  THE   EARLY   CHURCHES  31 

over  which  thanks  were  said  take  place,  and  it  is  sent  to  the 
absent  by  the  deacons.  Those  who  are  well  off  and  willing 
give  as  each  sees  fit,  and  what  is  collected  is  deposited 
with  the  president ;  and  he  aids  children  and  widows,  and 
those  who  are  in  want  by  reason  of  sickness  or  adversity, 
those  who  are  in  prison,  or  strangers  who  need  hospitahty ; 
in  short,  he  cares  for  all  who  are  in  want."  In  another 
place  Justin  mentions  the  mutual  kiss  after  prayer  and 
before  the  eucharist.  In  regard  to  baptism,  he  says  that 
the  candidates,  previously  admonished  to  prayer,  fasting, 
and  penitence,  are  taken  to  a  place  where  water  is,  and 
baptized  in  name  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. 

It  was  a  common  experience  in  these  churches  that 
the  nucleus  of  more  earnest  and  thorough  Christians  was 
surrounded  by  a  fringe  of  adherents  of  a  less  decided  sort. 
This  feature  took  shape  in  the  post-apostolic  age  under 
some  pecuhar  influences.  It  was  not  unusual  for  men 
who  were  interested  in  religious  questions  or  experiences 
to  get  themselves  initiated  into  one  or  other  of  the 
mysteries,  and  to  practise  its  discipline  assiduously  for  a 
time.  It  was  an  experiment.  When  they  seemed  to 
themselves  to  have  got  to  the  bottom  of  the  secret  dis- 
cipline, and  reaped  the  main  advantages  it  offered,  they 
then  relaxed,  and  were  ready  for  a  new  experiment.  To 
such  men  Christianity  might  seem  to  be  one  more  system, 
perhaps  more  pure  and  lofty,  but  which,  without  culpable 
irreverence,  might  be  dealt  with  very  much  in  the  same 
way.  Then  among  the  poor  who  were  drawn  to  the 
Christian  community  by  the  practical  benevolence  of  the 
Christians,  some,  of  course,  might  become  earnest  believers, 
but  others  might  be  no  more  than  grateful  dependants, 
professing  the  faith  which  brought  alms  and  kindly 
ministries  in  its  train.  Add  to  these  children  of  Christian 
parents,  who  adhered  to  their  parents'  religion  with  some 
reverence  perhaps,  but  without  profound  conviction,  and 
you  have  the  unreliable  element  in  the  Christian  societies, 
easily  swayed  by  the  temptations  which,  in  different  forms, 
assailed  the  Church. 


32  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

In  two  of  his  essays  Lucian  sketches  in  his  lively  way 
some  aspects  of  the  Christian  societies.  His  account  of 
Alexander  of  Abonoteichus  represents  the  Christians,  along 
with  the  Epicureans,  as  the  special  foes  of  that  ingenious 
impostor,  and  as  the  principal  objects  of  his  hate. 
Doubtless  the  Epicureans  had  too  little,  either  of  religion 
or  superstition,  to  give  in  to  a  religious  pretender ;  and  the 
Christian  faith  was  too  deep-rooted  and  decided  to  dream 
of  any  communion  with  him.  In  Lucian's  account  of 
Peregrinus  Proteus  he  tells  us  how  that  cynic  passed 
himself  off,  somewhere  in  Syria,  as  a  Christian,  and 
imposed  on  the  local  church  for  a  time.  As  a  Christian 
who  made  himself  conspicuous  he  was  imprisoned,  and 
would  probably  have  been  put  to  death,  but  the  governor 
of  Syria  saw  how  his  vanity  was  gratified  by  being 
the  centre  of  a  great  sensation,  and  sent  him  about 
his  business.  Lucian's  main  point  is  the  respect  and 
deference  the  Christians  paid  to  Peregrinus  during  his 
imprisonment,  crowding  to  see  him  and  listen  to  him,  and 
ministering  to  all  his  wants.  For  Lucian  they  are  sincere, 
silly,  kind-hearted  people,  who  are  successfully  gulled  by 
a  rogue.  But  it  is  quite  possible  that  Peregrinus  was  one 
of  those  dramatic  individuals  who  impose  in  some  degree 
on  themselves,  as  well  as  on  others,  in  the  various  parts 
which  they  play. 

Leadership  and  Okganisation  ^ 

From  the  Didache^  we  learn  that  apostles,  prophets, 
and  teachers  appeared  in  the  churches  or  in  some  of 
them,  and  were    regarded  with  great    respect.      All  three 

^  The  immense  mass  of  discussion  on  the  earliest  church  order  has  been 
augmented  and  freshened  of  late  years  in  consequence  of  the  discovery  of  the 
Didache.  Besides  Lightfoot's  Dissertation  {St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Philippians), 
which  must  always  be  kept  in  view,  there  may  be  named — Hatch,  Organisa- 
tion of  Early  Christian  Churches,  1882  (2nd  ed.) ;  also  articles  by  him  on 
Priest,  Orders,  Ordination,  in  Dictionary  of  Christian  Antiquities ;  Heron, 
Church  of  Sub- Apostolic  Age,  1888  ;  Gore,  Ministry  of  Christian  Churchy  1893. 

«  0.  xi.  f. 


98-180]  LEADERSHIP   AND    ORGANISATION  33 

seem  to  be  persons  recognised  as  men  of  spiritual  power 
and  gifts,  in  whom  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  in  an  excep- 
tional manner,  fitting  them  for  public  service,  could  be 
discerned;  and  it  does  not  appear  that  they  were  elected 
or  ordained  by  any  standing  authority.^  Of  teachers  as 
distinct  from  prophets  no  very  clear  idea  is  attainable. 
Perhaps  their  function  aimed  more  at  instruction,  while 
that  of  the  prophets  added  impression.  But  prophets  and 
apostles  seem  to  be  adapted  respectively  to  what  might 
now  be  called  the  fields  of  Home  and  Foreign  Mission. 
The  prophet  is  not  tied  to  any  congregation,  but  may,  if 
he  sees  fit,  take  up  his  abode  in  one,  reside  there  con- 
tinuously, and  exercise  his  gifts ;  he  takes  a  leading  place 
in  worship,  and  ought  to  be  generously  treated  as  to 
the  supply  of  his  wants.  The  apostle  has  been  led  to 
devote  himself  to  a  different  kind  of  life.  When  an 
apostle  appears  in  any  settled  church  he  is  to  be 
received  as  the  Lord;  but  he  is  not  expected  to  stay 
above  a  day  or  two;  and  it  is  a  bad  sign  of  him  if  he 
asks  for  money.  His  work  is  to  push  on — to  preach  the 
word  and  gather  churches  in  places  beyond.  Apparently 
pretenders  had  been  found  who  were  willing  to  trade  upon 
the  feelings  cherished  by  Christians  towards  such  persons, 
and  rules  are  laid  down  by  which  true  men  may  be 
distinguished.  Apostles  and  prophets  alike  must  speak 
according  to  the  received  conception  of  Christianity,  and 
their  conduct  must  agree  with  it,  especially  in  the  point  of 
being  disinterested. 

Prophets  and  men  of  prophetic  gift  come  before  us  in 
several  ways  during  the  second  century ;  Hermas  of  Kome 
probably  considered  himself  to  be  a  prophet,  and  he  was  con- 
siderably exercised  about  the  state  of  the  prophetic  function 
in  Kome  in  his  own  day,  the  claims  made  on  its  behalf, 
and  the  questions  rising  out   of  it.^      As  to  apostles,  the 

*  But  this  does  not  exclude  acts  of  recognition,  on  the  part  of  the  churches, 
both  at  the  beginning  of  such  a  career  and  afterwards.     Cf.  Acts  xiii.  1,  2. 

'  The  true  prophet,  according  to  him,  is  "gentle,  quiet,  humble,  abstain- 
ing from  all  wickedness  and   from  the   vain  desire  of  the  world,   making 

3 


34  THE   ANCIENT    CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

New  Testament  applies  the  name  to  others  besides  the 
Twelve ;  but  apart  from  the  Didache  we  hear  little  of  them 
afterwards.  Yet  a  reminiscence  of  these  early  apostles, 
conceived  perhaps  in  the  manner  of  a  later  and  a  changed 
time,  seems  to  be  preserved  by  Eusebius  {Hist.  Eccl.  iii.  3  ; 
also  V.  10.  2).  He  describes  a  class  of  men  content  to  be 
without  possessions,  and  always  pushing  on  in  mission 
work ;  they  were  not  standing  officers  of  churches,  nor,  ap- 
parently, appointed  either  by  the  Twelve  on  the  one  hand, 
or  by  the  churches  on  the  other.  They  were  greatly 
respected,  they  ordained  office-bearers  in  the  churches 
gathered  by  them,  and  "delivered  to  them  the  Scriptures 
of  the  divine  Gospels."  But  Eusebius  cannot  name  any  of 
them  except  Pantsenus,  who  is  rather  a  late  representative 
of  the  class. 

Persons  recognised  in  these  characters  must  have  filled 
a  very  important  place  in  the  life  and  worship  of  the 
churches  which  they  visited  or  in  which  they  abode.  The 
fact,  too,  that  such  persons  circulated  from  church  to 
church  would  help  to  maintain  a  common  consciousness, 
and  common  ways  of  thinking  and  acting;  it  would  con- 
tribute also  to  make  known  everywhere  the  books  re- 
cognised as  canonical.  On  the  other  hand,  the  exploits  of 
Peregrinus  Proteus,^  as  reported  by  Lucian,  receive  ^ome 
illustration,  when  we  realise  the  existence  and  activity  of 
apostles  and  prophets,  and  conceive  how  false  prophets 
might  work  the  situation. 

The  churches,  however,  also  required  and  had  standing 
office  -  bearers,  through  whom  they  were  organised  and  re- 
presented, and  who  were  charged  with  the  functions  that 
required  to  be  constantly  attended  to.  What  they  were 
has  been  the  subject  of  a  great  deal  of  discussion,  the 
rather  because  questions  about  the  nature  and  transmission 
of  Church  power  have  been  mixed  up  with  it.  The  primd 
facie  impression  which  the  materials  suggest  is  that  churches 

himself  the  poorest  of  all  men."      The   false  prophet   "exalts  himself,  is 
hasty  and  shameless,  talkative,  and  takes  hire  for  his  prophecy  "  {Mand.  xi.). 
1  Z>6  Peregr.  Froteo.  c.  13  f. 


98-180]  LEADERSHIP   AND    ORGANISATION  35 

exist  at  first  with  two  classes  of  recognised  office-bearers, 
one  known  as  presbyters  or  bishops,  and  the  other  as 
deacons.  This  is  the  concession  with  which  Lightfoot  sets 
out  in  his  well-known  essay.^  By  the  time  of  Ignatius  (a.d. 
115?)  the  bishop  is  in  some  churches — Antioch  and  those 
of  Asia — distinguished  from  the  presbyters  as  holding  a 
superior  position,  but  not  yet  apparently  in  Philippi,  or 
Kome,  or  Corinth.  By  the  end  of  the  second  century  the 
bishop  seems  to  be  very  generally  a  distinct  presiding  per- 
son, although  bishops  are  still  often  called  presbyters,  and 
although  important  writers  still  think  of  church  officers 
as  constituting  two  grades  rather  than  three.^  The  advo- 
cates of  an  original  threefold  order  argue  back  from  the 
general  and  peaceful  practice  at  the  end  of  the  century. 
They  maintain  that  this  result  could  not  have  come  to 
pass  by  accident,  nor  grown  without  a  real  root  in  apostolic 
precept  or  example.^ 

The  case  might  be  discussed  more  amicably  if  it  were 
kept  in  view  that  a  church  in  the  second  century  was 
practically  what  we  call  a  congregation.*  Now  the  ex- 
perience and  practice  of  almost  all  Christian  communities 
may  be  held  to  prove  that  some  strong  motive  or  reason 
brings  it  to  pass  that  a  congregation  is  usually  provided 
with  one  minister,  whose  whole  and  sole  work  it  is  to  look 
after  them,  whatever  other  officers  may  coexist  or  may  be 
appointed  in  addition.  Since  this  prevails  in  all  countries 
and  ages,  no  one  need  wonder  that  things  gravitate  into 
this  form  as  the  second  century  advances. 

It  might  be  much  the  more  wholesome  way,  and  most 
accordant  with  the  idea  of  the  Christian  Church,  that  a 
group  of  the  most  trusted  and  respected  men  should  be 
charged  with  the  official  duty  of  guiding  and  watching  over 
the    society;   and    probably    all    churches  lose   something 

*  Lightfoot,  St.  PauVs  Epistle  to  (he  PhilijppiaTis,  pp.  181-269. 

*  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  vi.  18. 

*  That  even  at  the  end  of  the  century,  however,  the  bishop  was  more  than 
a  presbyter  with  permanent  presidency,  is  not  proved. 

*  This  ideal  is  still  visible,  Ap.  Const,  ii.  57. 


36  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

where  this  system  is  not  practically  maintained.  But  yet 
in  the  early  Church,  as  in  all  churches  since,  influences; 
were  at  work  which  tended  to  complete  the  arrangement 
by  the  employment  of  one  man  as  the  centre  of  pastoral 
activities.^ 

If  we  suppose  that  the  third  order  was  developed 
from  a  state  of  things  in  which  there  had  been  only  two, 
the  following  considerations  are  to  be  kept  in  view.  In 
any  body  of  presbyters  someone  must  preside ;  and  that 
arrangement  becomes  still  more  imperative  in  worship. 
The  chair  may  be  taken  by  all  in  turn ;  but  age,  services, 
character,  and  aptitude  may  lead  to  someone  being  preferred, 
particularly  in  worship.  Teaching  demands  special  apti- 
tudes, which  may  require  cultivation.  The  charities  of  the 
congregation,  too,  constituted  a  very  great  element  of  early 
Church  life,^  and  even  if  generally  watched  over  by  all  the 
presbyters,  might  best  be  systematised  by  putting  one  person 
in  special  charge,  with  control  of  the  deacons  who  worked 
out  the  details.  The  worship  of  the  congregation  might 
require  a  good  deal  of  arranging,  especially  if  there  was  as 
yet  no  church  building,  and  if  the  place  of  meeting  was  not 
always  the  same.  A  central  person  to  serve  the  purpose 
of  an  inquiry  office,  and  to  exercise  some  care  in  providing 
for  emergencies  and  regulating  details,  would  be  expedient. 
And  the  duty  of  carrying  on  communications  with  those 
outside,  whether  other  churches  or  the  civil  authorities  of 
the  place,  was  a  function  by  itself.  Clement  seems  to  have 
discharged  it  at  Eome.* 

So  far  no  reason  appears  why  these  functions  should 
not  be  distributed  among  three  or  four,  and  perhaps  that 
was  the  method  in  some  churches  for  a  time.  Each  of 
the  group  in  that  case  might  be  in  the  emphatic  sense  an 
episcopos  *  for  his  own  department.      But  the  persons  are 

^  Here  the  case  of  very  small  churches  is  not  dwelt  on.  In  those,  plainly, 
one  active  personality  would  absorb  and  satisfy  all  requirements;  and  it 
might  not  be  easy  always  to  find  one. 

*  Hatch,  Organisation  of  Early  Churches,  p.  40  f. 

*  Hermas,  Vis.  ii.  4. 

*  "  Convener"  would  be  the  word  in  some  modern  churches. 


98-180]  LEADERSHIP   AND    ORGANISATION  37 

not  many  who  are  willing  to  take  on  such  duties,  and  are 
able  to  command  confidence  in  the  discharge  of  them, 
especially  if  large  demands  on  their  time  are  implied.  A 
point  would  be  reached  when  mere  spare  time  redeemed 
from  business  would  be  found  to  be  not  enough  to  dis- 
charge duly  the  various  functions  required.  This  would 
be  felt  particularly  in  the  department  of  pastoral  care ; 
for  energetic  action  was  needed  to  keep  the  church  to- 
gether, and  to  keep  sight  of  individuals  and  details.  What- 
ever distribution  of  duties  continued  to  exist,  the  whole 
time  of  someone  must  be  given  to  the  work, — naturally 
the  most  energetic,  able,  and  devout  Christian  attainable. 
Such  a  man  must  therefore  give  up  secular  business,  and 
must  be  provided  for.  One  such  person  might  be  enough 
at  first ;  as  churches  grew  the  deacons  would  next  require 
to  be  cared  for  in  this  way:  the  presbyters  not  till  later. 
A  presbyter  placed  in  the  position  now  indicated  would 
inevitably  acquire  a  character,  an  influence,  and  a  stamp 
distinguishing  him  from  others;  and  he  would  be  felt  to 
be  in  an  emphatic  sense  "  episcopos,"  the  man  whose  business 
it  was  to  look  after  things.  He  was  the  man  also  who 
must  specially  appeal  to  the  loyalty  of  the  congregation 
to  stand  by  him  in  his  special  and  incessant  responsibilities. 
He  became  the  centre  of  the  system. 

As  character  and  services  increased  the  influence  of 
such  a  man,  as  the  feelings  associated  with  pastoral  care 
gathered  round  him,  and  as  converse  with  Christians  and 
with  Christian  interests  promoted  his  spiritual  training, 
he  might  fall  heir  to  much  of  the  peculiar  reverence  given 
to  prophets  and  apostles. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  churches  varied  extremely 
in  their  size  and  circumstances.  In  some,  one  person  to 
guide  and  lead  in  worship,  with  a  deacon  or  two,  might 
be  as  much  as  could  be  attained.  It  certainly  continued 
for  a  long  time  to  be  the  case  that  some  bishops  followed 
ordinary  occupations  for  their  support;  but  those  must 
have  been  cases  in  which  the  church  work  was  comparatively 
light.     There  might  also  be  cases  where  churches  grew  so 


38  THE    ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH  [a.d. 

rapidly  that  it  soon  became  necessary  to  relieve  several 
presbyters  from  secular  cares,  and  in  such  cases  the  de- 
velopment of  the  monarchical  episcopate  might  be  delayed. 
But  that  could  not  be  usual.  More  commonly  we  can 
trace  a  period  during  which  the  bishop  and  deacons  are 
the  active  persons,  continually  in  contact  with  the  church 
life,  and  presbyters  though  respected  are  not  so  much  in 
front ;  but  later  they  come  into  prominence  again,  probably 
because  the  growth  of  the  churches  now  required  and 
employed  their  whole  time. 

The  writer  does  not  lay  great  stress  on  the  details  thus 
sketched  out.  Very  early,  presbyters  who  were  specially 
gifted  may  have  been  encouraged  to  charge  themselves 
with  exceptional  responsibilities  under  influences  too  subtle 
to  be  satisfactorily  represented.  The  points  to  be  em- 
phasised are  that  the  episcopate,  in  the  later  sense,  developed 
at  a  time  when  "  a  church  "  was  still  a  congregation,  and  that 
an  important  step  must  have  been  made  when  a  man  was 
called  upon  to  lay  aside  secular  business  and  to  devote  himself 
mainly  to  the  service  of  his  brethren  in  church  work. 

It  may  be  right  to  add  that  while  presbyters  and 
deacons,  and  from  an  uncertain  date  a  presiding  bishop, 
were  men  holding  office,  to  which  they  were  set  apart  and 
in  which  much  respect  was  paid  to  them,  they  were  not  at 
this  stage  a  professional  class  as  we  now  understand  the 
term.  They  were  no  more  so  than  town  councillors  and 
justices  of  the  peace  are  now.  But  their  office  was  part 
of  a  divine  system,  and  so  it  added  to  their  character  as 
Christians  something  which  their  brethren  were  not  at  all 
disposed  to  make  light  account  of. 

It  does  not  appear  that  these  officers  were  anywhere 
elected  for  a  term,  after  which  they  should  retire  unless 
re-elected.  They  could  be  displaced  for  cause  shown ;  and 
it  is  quite  possible  that  in  some  cases  early  churches  acted 
in  this  line  pretty  freely,  in  the  way  of  giving  effect  to 
their  impressions  about  merits  or  demerits.  But  as  far  as  we 
know,  men  were  called  and  ordained  to  office  as  something 
designed  to  be  permanent ;  in  short,  ad  vitam  aut  cuL;pam, 


98-180]  LEADERSHIP   AND   ORGANISATION  39 

Although  the  president-bishop  during  this  period  be- 
comes visible  enough  as  a  distinct  feature  in  the  system, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  name  any  function  appropriated 
to  him  alone.  Where  he  was  present  he  no  doubt  presided ; 
that  lay  in  the  nature  of  the  case.  As  to  public  teaching, 
Justin  Martyr  mentions  that  after  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures  the  "  president "  made  an  exhortation ;  but  we 
hear  also  that  in  the  same  circumstances  the  presbyters 
exhorted  in  turn ;  ^  indeed  the  competency  of  a  presbyter 
to  preside  in  public  worship  was  never  questioned.  So 
also  as  to  the  sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper.2  Probably  much  depended,  as  regards  the  ultimate 
settlement  of  the  distinctive  attributions  of  a  bishop,  on 
the  fact  that  some  administrations  were  felt  to  require,  in 
a  special  manner,  the  presence  of  the  complete  church, 
and  therefore  of  its  official  president.  This  applied  to 
ordinations.  Appointment  of  men  to  office,  otherwise  than 
as  the  act  of  the  whole  church,  would  tend  directly  to 
schism.  The  same  principle  applied  also  to  the  formal 
restoration  of  the  fallen  after  discipline.  The  church  had 
witnessed  their  penitence,  and  the  church  ought  to  receive 
them  back  in  a  solemn  and  complete  assembly.  The 
bishop  could  be  and  was  present  on  all  such  occasions,  and 
led  the  action ;  it  would  follow  easily,  after  some  time  had 
passed,  that  such  things  were  regarded  as  exclusively  his. 
The  same  rule  might  perhaps  have  applied  to  the  Lord's 
Supper.  But  as  that  was  observed  every  Lord's  day,  as  a 
bishop  must  be  sometimes  unwell  or  absent,  and  as  separate 
gatherings  for  worship  could  not  be  avoided  when  congre- 
gations extended  and  affiliated  groups  had  to  be  provided 
for,  the  practice  of  dispensing  the  ordinance  through  a 
presbyter  never  could  be  discontinued.  Ignatius  recognises, 
but  does  not  like,  celebrations  of  the  eucharist  without  the 
bishop.      At   a    later    date,   ordinations    and    authoritative 

'  2  Clem.  Rom.  xvii.  3. 

'  See  Tert.  cU  Coron.  3,  and  de  Bapt.  17.  According  to  the  latter  pas- 
sage anyone  can  baptize  in  case  of  need,  but  usually  the  administration 
ought  to  be  respectfully  left  to  the  bishop. 


40  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

release  from  discipline  were  recognised  episcopal  functions. 
We  have  no  proof  that  as  yet  they  were  so  regarded ;  but, 
in  the  way  indicated,  things  might  be  in  progress  towards 
that  result. 

The  value  for  a  selected  pastor  as  the  centre  of 
church  administrations  must  have  been  greatly  enhanced 
by  the  experiences  connected  with  Gnosticism,  and,  in  a 
less  degree,  with  Montanism.  All  the  heresies  carried 
division  with  them:  Gnosticism  did  so  eminently:  if  it 
made  progress,  the  churches  must  be  demoralised,  be- 
wildered, and  broken.  The  impulse  must  have  made  itself 
strongly  felt  in  each  church,  in  the  case  even  of  many 
who  could  not  judge  the  merits  of  the  dispute,  to  rally 
round  the  person  who  had  been  chosen  as  the  church's 
strongest,  wisest,  and  most  representative  man,  and  largely  to 
trust  his  Christian  instincts  to  carry  them  through. 

Justin  Martyr  speaks  of  the  "  reader "  (avayv(o(7T7)<;)j 
and  the  writer  of  what  is  called  the  Second  Epistle  of 
Clement  seems  to  reckon  that  function  as  his  own  special 
work.  Probably  it  was  hardly  as  yet  an  office — rather  a 
useful  aptitude  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Church.  The 
reader  of  later  times  was  certainly  not  expected  to  preach,^ 
but  there  are  indications  that  earlier  he  was  presumed  to 
have  some  spiritual  gift.  A  certain  distinct  position  in 
the  congregation  was  probably  allotted  also  to  confessors, 
virgins  (of  both  sexes),  widows,  and  perhaps  others  as  welL 


Note 

In  regard  to  the  Episcopate,  Dr.  Hatch,  followed  by 
Harnack,  suggested  a  modified  view,  which  has  been  sup- 
ported very  ably.     It  may  be  briefly  stated  thus — 

1.  The  presbyters  were  not  properly  officers  or  function- 
aries, but  an  informal  committee  of  the  members — naturally 
composed  of  the  older  men  (hence  'jrpsfflSvrspoi) — taking  the 
management  of  the  common  affairs.  Afterwards,  in  more 
numerous  churches  especially,  they  might  come  to  be  a  select 

1  See  some  information   on  this   obscure  topic  collected   by    Harnack, 
Texte  u.  Unters.  ii.  5,  Lectoramt. 


98-180]  KOTE  4i 

body,  chosen,  and  might  thus  approximate  more  to  the  type 
of  office-bearers. 

2.  The  bishops  and  deacons  were  from  the  first  proper 
office-bearers,  i.e.  functionaries,  servants  or  employees,  of 
the  congregation,  and,  therefore,  of  the  presbyters. 

3.  The  bishops,  even  in  the  earliest  period,  were  not 
identical  with  presbyters,  though  bishops  might  be  also 
presbyters,  or  members  of  the  presbytery.  The  bishops 
were  properly  stewards,  and  two  of  their  functions  as  such 
may  be  named:  First,  to  superintend  the  revenue  with  its 
incoming  and  outgoing,  therefore,  specially,  the  charities  of 
the  congregation:  here  stress  is  laid  on  the  importance  of 
this  in  the  early  churches :  second,  to  superintend  arrange- 
ments for  worship  (including  the  Agape),  and  see  that  wor- 
ship went  on  satisfactorily.  Hatch  dwelt  more  on  the  former 
function  and  Harnack  on  the  latter. 

4.  Tlie  deacons  were  the  younger  aides-de-camp  of  the 
bishops,  naturally  required  in  connection  with  such  functions. 

5.  From  their  function  in  reference  to  worship  (Harnack), 
being  at  the  same  time  generally  energetic  and  capable  men, 
bishops  came  to  be  expected  to  keep  worship  going,  and 
to  give  it  interest,  freshness,  and  dignity,  especially  after 
prophets  and  apostles  became  more  scanty  or  less  trust- 
worthy. Compare  the  Bidache,  "  for  they,  too  (bishops  and 
deacons),  minister  to  you  the  ministry  of  the  Prophets  and 
Teachers.  Therefore  despise  them  not,  for  they  are  men  to 
be  honoured  with  the  Prophets  and  Teachers"  (xv.  1,  2). 

6.  According  to  this  view,  there  were  at  first  no  men 
in  the  Church  having  any  proper  authority,  except  the 
Apostles,  Prophets,  and  Teachers.  The  bishops  and  deacons 
were  servants,  though  honoured  and  trusted  servants,  and  the 
presbyters  were  only  a  committee  of  the  members.  By  the 
time  of  the  Didache  the  bishops  and  deacons  are  becoming 

authorities  (^rsn/Mrtfiivot  fjjira   tuv  '7rpopr}Tuv   xcci   didaffxdXuv).      And 

the  bishop  rose  into  the  chief  place  because  he  did  most 
work,  while  the  presbyters  somehow  became  his  inferiors — 
partly  perhaps  because  they  had  not  been  emphatically 
enough  distinguished  from  the  congregation  to  maintain 
superiority.  Still  the  tradition  of  their  presidency  ensured 
them  some  place,  and  they  settled  into  the  second. 

This  theory  has  abundant  suggestiveness.  I  cannot 
reckon  it  sufficient,  for  (1)  I  think  that  from  the  first 
pastoral  care  existed,  with  the  amount  of  authority  which 
that  implies.     (2)   Presbyters,  at  the  earliest  mention  of 


42  THE  ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

them,  are  more  expressly  chosen  and  settled  in  care  of 
churches  than  this  theory  will  allow.  (3)  I  cannot  doubt 
that  the  s'moKO'Trr},  whoever  was  charged  with  it,  was  an  over- 
sight of  spiritual  health  and  Christian  welfare  primarily. 
(4)  I  see  no  reason  on  this  theory  why  at  first  there  should 
be  plurality  of  bishops  (Phil.  i.  1),  nor  any  explanation  of 
how,  eventually,  the  plurality  was  restrained  to  such  emphatic 
singularity.  (6)  The  implied  revolution  by  which  the  pres- 
byters, the  original  superiors,  became  subject  to  the  bishop, 
the  eventual  superior,  ought  to  have  left  deeper  marks  on  the 
history. 

The  theory  makes  the  presbyters  have  special  charge  of 
discipline,  as  the  active  representatives  of  the  membership, 
in  whom  the  power  of  discipline  resides. 

An  accessible  sketch  of  the  theory  by  Harnack  himself 
may  be  seen  in  the  Ency.  Brit,  article  "  Presbyters,"  vol.  xix. 


Discipline 

As  regards  the  discipline  of  the  congregation,  we  know 
that  care  of  the  conduct  of  believers  was  a  recognised 
function  of  the  Church,  and  that  in  the  case  of  grave  sins 
ordinary  privileges  were,  to  say  the  least,  suspended.  We 
must  believe  also  that  in  proceedings  concerned  with  this 
aspect  of  church  life,  the  presbyters  and,  where  he  existed, 
the  bishop  in  the  distinctive  sense,  must  have  taken  a 
leading  part ;  for,  in  addition  to  all  official  attributes,  they 
were  the  select  men,  more  trusted  and  more  representative 
than  any  of  the  rest.  On  the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  in  communities  like  those  we  are  contem- 
plating, the  procedure  taken  in  such  cases  must  have  been 
known  to  the  community,  and  must  have  had  their  assent 
expressly  or  virtually.  That  seems  implied  in  the  concep- 
tion of  the  Church  which  goes  through  the  literature. 
The  Christian  concerns  are  the  concerns  of  the  whole 
body.  The  churches  are  exhorted  to  enforce  discipline ;  the 
churches  write  letters  of  exhortation ;  the  churches  are 
supposed  to  be  participant  in  proceedings.  This  does  not 
exclude  some  special  function  of  the  office-bearers;  but  it 
includes  some  influence  of  the  mind  of  the  members.     It 


98-180]  DISCIPLINE  43 

does  not  appear,  however,  by  what  ecclesiastical  order 
of  things  the  function  of  the  people  was  regulated  or 
guaranteed.  For  a  long  time  after  our  present  period 
the  common  sentiment  of  the  Christian  congregations  had 
great  and  recognised  influence,  but  one  sees  very  little 
trace  of  a  precise  or  regulated  method  of  exerting  it.  It 
endured  longest,  as  a  recognised  element,  in  the  election  of 
office-bearers ;  this  right  continues  to  find  some  expression, 
and  sometimes  very  vigorous  expression,  far  down  the 
history  of  the  Church.  But  it  seems  to  take  effect  in  an 
ill-regulated,  tumultuous  way.^  Perhaps  it  never  was  pro- 
tected by  very  definite  forms  or  rules.  In  a  state  of 
things  in  which  bishop  and  presbyters  were  representatives 
of  the  congregation,  and  had  the  best  reasons  for  maintain- 
ing a  good  understanding  with  them,  fixed  methods  for 
ascertaining  exactly  the  mind  of  the  members  were  perhaps 
not  felt  to  be  very  important.  As  affairs  multiplied,  there- 
fore, they  naturally  fell  more  into  the  hands  of  the  official 
persons;  but  in  the  common  Christian  mind  a  standard 
existed,  which  could  be  applied  both  to  the  personal  be- 
haviour of  office-bearers  and  to  the  principles  of  their 
administration.  Things  could  not  be  carried  on  unless  that 
standard  of  opinion  was  respected.  But  it  is  not  easy  to 
say  what  the  matters  were  in  which  it  was  thought  the 
congregation  must  utter  a  distinct  potential  voice,  excepting 
always  the  election  of  men  to  office. 

As  regards  discipline,  it  is  pretty  clear  that  at  the  end 
of  our  period  it  was  customary  for  the  bishop,  who  was  the 
official  representative  of  the  whole  flock  as  well  as  their 
chief  pastor,  to  officiate  in  restoring  penitents  to  the  com- 
munion of  the  Church.  This  was  perfectly  natural.  Yet 
it  had  much  to  do  with  the  growth  of  the  episcopate  as 
a  distinct  order  with  exceptional  powers ;  for  this,  like 
the  right  of  ordaining,  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  function 
and  a  power  divinely  bestowed  upon  him.  The  Montanists 
objected  to  the  exercise  of  this  function  by  the  bishops ;  but 
they  do  not  seem  to  have   set  up  against  it  a  claim  for 

*  Sidon.  ApoUinaris.  Epp.  iv.  25  ;  vii.  9. 


44  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH  [a.d. 

popular  control,  but  rather  that  prophetic  persons  speaking 
in  the  Spirit  should  decide  such  matters.  Sharp  contentions 
were  arising  as  to  the  severity  or  the  tenderness  which 
should  prevail  in  dealing  with  penitents  :  and  it  becomes 
plain,  at  a  later  stage,  that  bishops  had  to  reckon  with  very 
strong  opinions  on  the  subject  among  the  members  of  their 
flocks.^  But  official  power,  aided  no  doubt  by  a  wise  regard 
to  opinion  in  the  exercise  of  it,  was  destined  to  prevail. 


Martyrdom 

Part  of  the  life  of  early  Christianity  was  liability  to 
persecution.  The  relation  of  the  Christians  to  the  laws  has 
been  described.  We  are  not  to  suppose  that  martyrdom 
was  an  everyday  business.  In  particular  places,  and  at 
particular  times,  considerable  periods  might  pass  during 
which  the  Christians  were  little  troubled.  But  the  possi- 
bility was  always  present ;  and  once  called  to  an  account, 
the  Christian  must  reckon  on  high  penalties,  unless  he  was 
willing  to  save  his  life  by  apostasy.^  There  were  friendly 
governors  who  suggested  to  the  Christians  expedients  by 
which,  without  violating  their  conscience,  they  might  avoid 
a  direct  conflict  with  authority.^  But  that  was  not  usual. 
For  the  most  part  just,  and  even  courteous,  judges,  who 
showed  no  delight  in  cruelty,  still  felt  it  their  business  to 
execute  the  law  firmly.  Others  were  cruel  men;  they 
applied  torture  to  break  down  Christian  constancy,  and 
lent  themselves  to  give  judicial  expression  to  the  popular 
passions  of  scorn  and  hate. 

Martyrdom  might  be  solitary,  but  it  was  often  social — 
those  who  had  worshipped  together  dying  together.  Justin 
Martyr  was  accused  at  Kome  along  with  Charito  (a  woman), 
Euelpistus,  "  a  slave  of  Caesar,  but  made  a  freeman  by 
Christ,"  Hierax,  Paeon,  Liberianus.  They  appeared  before 
Rusticus,  the   prefect   of    the    city,  who   questioned    them 

*  Apost.  Const,  ii.  14. 

^  Justin  Mart.  Apol.  i.  11. 

'  Kg.  Cincius  Severn s,  Tert.  ad  Scap.  4. 


98-180]  MARTYRDOM  45 

rather  haughtily  as  to  their  origin  and  their  Christian 
profession,  which  they  all  acknowledged.  From  Justin  he 
educed  a  short  statement  of  his  faith  ("Are  these  the 
doctrines  that  please  you,  poor  creatures  ? "),  and  in  par- 
ticular of  his  expectation  of  a  blessed  immortality  ("  You 
that  are  a  learned  man  and  knowing  in  doctrines,  are  you 
persuaded  that  if  you  are  scourged  and  beheaded  you  will 
ascend  into  heaven  and  be  rewarded  ?  Do  you  imagine 
that  ? "  "I  do  not  imagine  it,  I  know  it,  I  am  sure  of  it "). 
He  also  inquired  as  to  where  Justin  lived  and  met  his 
disciples,  and  was  told  he  lived  "  above  the  house  of  Martin 
at  the  Timotinian  bath."  Finally,  the  prefect  came  to  the 
point :  "  Come  together  and  sacrifice  to  the  gods."  On 
receiving  a  refusal,  he  again  warned  them.  Justin  replied 
as  before,  referring  to  the  great  tribunal  of  the  Lord  and 
Saviour ;  and  his  humbler  companions  said,  "  Do  what  you 
please :  for  we  are  Christians,  we  do  not  sacrifice  to  idols." 
Then  the  prefect  passed  sentence :  "  Let  these,  who  have 
refused  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods  and  obey  the  commands  of 
the  emperor,  be  scourged  and  led  away  to  suffer  capital 
punishment,  according  to  law."  They  were  beheaded  accord- 
ingly. Some  believers  secretly  removed  their  bodies  and 
buried  them  in  a  fitting  place,  "  with  the  aid  of  the  grace 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Eager  Christians  were  for  meeting  the  enemy  half-way, 
and  censured  those  who  withdrew  and  hid  thgnselves. 
The  narrator  of  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp  at  Smyrna  is 
evidently  aware  that  some  had  censured  the  conduct  of  that 
venerable  man  in  withdrawing  for  a  time,  and  he  is  anxious 
to  vindicate  the  consistency  and  the  dignity  of  his  behaviour. 
At  the  same  time  he  points  out  that  some,  who  rashly 
affronted  persecution,  did  not  prove  steadfast  in  the  end. 
Polycarp,  an  old  man  of  86,  was  arrested  at  a  friend's 
house.  He  asked  for  time  to  pray,  and  poured  forth 
supplications  aloud  and  continuously  for  two  hours.  Then 
they  brought  him  to  the  city  and  into  the  Stadium. 
The  judge,  as  usual,  tried  to  persuade  Polycarp  to  save 
himself  by  compliance ;  then,  irritated  perhaps  by  the  lofty 


46  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

tone  and  bearing  of  the  old  man,  he  threatened  him  with 
the  wild  beasts.  It  was  in  vain;  the  martyr's  last  word 
was,  "  Why  do  you  delay  ?  Do  what  you  will."  For 
certain  reasons  the  wild  beasts  were  not  available,  and 
Polycarp  was  appointed  to  die  by  fire.  A  multitude  of 
Jews  and  Gentiles  looked  on;  the  process  was  slow,  and 
the  martyr's  patience  invincible;  so  the  crowd  wearied, 
and  called  for  a  finishing  stroke,  which  was  inflicted  by 
the  proper  official ;  and  a  great  gush  of  blood,  remarkable 
for  so  old  a  man,  ended  the  tragedy.  This  closed  a 
persecution  in  which  scourging,  death  by  fire  and  by 
wild  beasts,  had  proved  the  constancy  of  the  Smyrnese 
church. 

What  seems  to  be  the  earliest  form  of  the  narrative  of 
the  Scillitan  martyrs  has  recently  turned  up.^  The  date 
is  probably  about  A.D.  180,  and  the  account  illustrates  very 
well  the  grave  and  brief  utterance  of  a  Koman  magistrate. 
Saturninus  was  the  pro-consul,  of  whom  Tertullian  has  said 
that  he  first  in  Africa  actively  persecuted  the  Christians. 
Three  men  and  three  women  are  named  in  the  Acts,  but 
there  seem  to  have  been  others.  The  pro-consul  offers 
them  clemency  if  they  will  comply  ;  if,  for  example,  they 
will  swear  by  the  genius  of  the  emperor.  He  refuses  to 
hear  them  on  the  merits  of  the  two  religions,  but  brings 
them  back  to  his  offer  four  or  five  times.  The  Christians 
protest  .their  innocence  of  crime,  and  would  have  explained 
their  belief  if  allowed.  On  the  main  point,  they  steadily 
abide  by  their  Christianity :  Caesar  is  to  be  honoured  as 
Caesar,  but  God  is  to  be  feared  as  God.  Saturninus,  "  Will 
you  take  time  to  think  of  it  ? "  Speratus,  "  In  so  good  a 
cause  there  is  no  room  for  deliberation.*'  Saturninus, 
"What  have  you  got  there  in  the  wallet?"  Speratus, 
"  Books  (Gospels  very  likely),  and  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  a 
righteous  man."  Saturninus,  "  Take  a  delay  of  thirty  days 
and  bethink  yourselves."  Speratus,  "  I  am  a  Christian"; 
and  all  the  rest  agreed.  Saturninus,  the  pro-consul, 
declared  the  sentence  from  the  written  form :  "  It  is 
*  Camhridge  Texts  and  Studies,  i.  2. 


98-180]  MARTYRDOM  47 

ordered  that  Speratus,  Nartzalus,  Cittinus,  Donata,  Vestia, 
Secunda,  and  the  rest,  who  have  confessed  to  living  accord- 
ing to  the  Christian  rule,  inasmuch  as  they  have  obstinately- 
persisted,  after  opportunity  given,  to  return  to  the  Eoman 
life,  shall  be  punished  with  the  sword."  Speratus  said, 
"  Thank  God."  Nartzalus  said,  "  To-day  we  are  martyrs 
in  heaven ;  thank  God."  Saturninus  directed  the  herald  to 
make  proclamation  in  terms  of  the  sentence.  "  And  so  all 
of  them  together  were  crowned  with  martyrdom,  and  they 
reign  with  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
for  ever  and  ever." 

The  Acts  of  Justin  and  those  last  referred  to  are 
most  likely  based  throughout  on  the  official  record ;  the 
Acts  of  Polycarp  are  a  narrative  by  Christian  onlookers, 
who  testify  what  they  saw  and  what  they  felt.  But  the 
gem  of  all  Acts  of  martyrdom  is  the  story  of  Perpetua 
and  her  companions.^  She  was  a  young  Carthaginian 
lady,  a  wife,  and  mother  of  a  young  child,  and  she  wrote 
the  story  herself  down  to  the  night  before  she  was  ex- 
posed to  the  beasts; — how  she  was  imprisoned,  how  she 
was  tried,  how  she  was  comforted,  what  visions  or  dreams 
she  had,  assuring  her  of  victory.  The  narrative  is  com- 
pleted by  one  who  could  report  the  closing  scenes.  The 
simplicity  and  the  quietness  of  the  whole  give  it  a  quite 
peculiar  power.  No  one,  probably,  could  read  it  aloud  to 
the  end  with  a  steady  voice.  It  is  too  long  to  insert,  and 
would  be  wronged  by  summary. 

Persecutions  are  mentioned  of  which  we  have  no 
details,  or  only  single  features.^  But  the  church  of 
Lyons  and  Vienne  drew  up  for  the  information  of  their 
friends  in  Asia  and  Phrygia  an  account  of  the  bitter 
experience  through  which  they  passed  about  the  year 
A.D.  177.^  The  proceedings  look  like  a  resolute  attempt 
to  terrify  the  church  into  submission ;  and  suggest  that 
perhaps  Christianity  was  as  yet  feebly  and  scantily  repre- 

*  Best  in  Camb.  Texts  and  Studies,  pt.  L 
»  Kg.  Tert.  ad  Scap.  4. 
»  Eus.  ffist.  Eccl.  V.  1-4. 


48  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

sented  in  Gaul,  and  that  the  destruction  of  the  church 
of  Lyons  might  seem  likely  to  be  its  deathblow  in  that 
country.  The  proceedings  fell  at  the  time  of  the  great 
annual  gathering  Id  August.  This  Christianity  had  come 
from  the  East,  and  used  the  Greek  language  ^  (with  Celtic 
also,  as  Irenaeus  {Ref.  Prcef)  intimates).  The  persecution 
was  attended  by  furious  outbursts  of  popular  hatred.  The 
prolonged  and  repeated  tortures  of  ten  or  eleven  persons 
are  described;  but  a  considerably  large  number  were  put 
to  death,  including  some  who  had  given  way  at  first,  but 
afterwards  recovered  their  faith  and  confessed  it.  After 
the  early  stage  of  the  persecutioD,  in  which  severe  and 
prolonged  tortures  were  applied  to  the  sufferers,  the 
governor  reported  to  the  emperor  (Marcus  Aurelius).  He 
replied,  directing  that  those  who  confessed  the  faith  should 
be  put  to  death,  and  those  who  disclaimed  it  set  free. 
The  narrative  of  the  martyrdom  remarks  that  the  most 
outstanding  men  of  the  two  churches  had  been  arrested 
— those  who  were  most  zealous,  and  who  had  done  most 
to  sustain  the  Christian  cause  in  the  places  where  they 
lived. 

Naturally,  scenes  like  these  produced  great  excitement. 
Sometimes  spectators,  who  had  never  before  professed 
Christianity,  became  so  impressed  with  what  they  saw  at 
the  scaffold,  or  with  the  spirit  and  bearing  of  Christian 
sufferers  in  prison,  that  they  surrendered  themselves  to 
Christ  and  His  religion,  and  accepted  all  the  consequences. 
Sometimes  Christian  onlookers,  who  had  not  up  to  that 
time  been  themselves  accused,  could  not  resist  the  impulse 
of  sympathy  and  indignation;  they  stood  out,  denounced 
the  persecutor,  and  offered  themselves  to  condemnation. 
Or  Christians,  carried  out  of  themselves  by  the  "  passion  "  in 
which  they  felt  it  a  privilege  to  share,  could  even  join  the 
sufferers,  apparently  without  waiting  to  be  either  accused  or 
condemned.  Cases  of  the  last  kind  could  only  be  rare,  and 
they   could   not  be  approved  by   the   Church.      But  they 

*  It  is  noted  that  Sanctus  replied  to  all  questions  in  the  Boman  tongus, 
"Christianus  sum." 


98-180]  MARTYRDOM  49 

could    occur,    and    are    recorded    also   with  sympathy  and 
admiration.^ 

*  "Akten  des  Karpus,"  etc.,  Texte  u.  Unters.  vol.  iii. :  "Now  a  certain 
Agathonike,  standing  and  seeing  the  glory  of  the  Lord  which  Carpus  said  he 
now  beheld,  and  knowing  that  the  call  was  heavenly,  straightway  lifted  up 
her  voice,  *  This  meal  has  been  prepared  for  me  :  I  must  partake  and  eat  of 
this  glorious  meal.'  And  the  people  cried  out  and  said,  *  Have  pity  on  thy 
son.'  But  the  blessed  Agathonike  said,  *He  has  God,  who  is  able  to  show 
him  pity,  for  He  foresees  all  things ;  but  as  for  me,  wherefore  am  I  come 
here?'  and  casting  off  her  garment  she  threw  herself  triumphantly  upon  the 
pile.  And  those  who  saw  it  wept,  saying,  *  A  terrible  judgment :  unrighteous 
ordinances  ! '  And  having  been  set  in  her  place,  and  reached  by  the  fire,  she 
cried  out  thrice,  *  Lord,  Lord,  Lord  help  me,  for  I  have  fled  unto  Thee ' ; 
and  so  she  gave  up  the  ghost  and  was  perfected  with  the  saints."  The  scene 
is  at  Pergamus,  and  the  date  assigned  is  the  reign  of  Marcos  Aui-elius. 


CHAPTER  III 

The   Church's    Life 
literature 

The  history  of  Patristic  Literature  begins  with  Hieronymns,  De  viris 
illustribus.  Among  post-Kef ormation  works  on  this  subject  may  be 
named  Dupin,  Nouvelle  Bibliothhquey  Paris,  1688-1714 ;  S.  W.  Cave, 
Script.  Eccl.  Hist.  Liter. ^  Oxon.  1740 ;  R.  Ceillier,  Hist.  Gen^r.  des 
Auteurs,  etc.,  14  vols.,  Paris,  1860.  For  the  period  covered  by  this 
volume,  Smith  and  Wace,  Diet,  of  Christian  Biogr.y  4  vols.,  London, 
1877 ;  Donaldson,  Hist,  of  Chr.  Lit.  and  Doctr.  (unfd.),  3  vols.,  Lond. 
1866.  For  Latin  writers,  Schonemann,  Bihl.  Hist.  Lit.  Patr.  Lat^ 
2  vols..  Lips.  1792, 1794,  and  Bahr,  Gesch.  d.  Rom.  Lit.,  Suppl.  I.-IIL, 
Karlsruhe,  1836-40,  are  convenient  to  consult.  Harnack,  Altchristl. 
Liter,  (unfd.),  Leipz.  1893  fol.  Of  older  collections  of  works  of 
Fathers,  Gallandius,  14  vols.,  Venet.  1765  fol.,  is  of  most  repute. 
Much  more  complete  is  the  collection  of  Migne,  Patrologice  Gursus^ 
etc.,  Paris,  1844  ff.  (very  inelegant),  which  reprints  notes  and  dis- 
sertations from  older  editions.  Texts  only,  edited  with  great 
care,  of  Latin  authors,  the  series  of  Vienna  Academy,  1866  ff. ; 
and  of  Greek  authors,  first  three  centuries,  series  of  Royal  Prussian 
Academy,  1897  ff.,  both  in  course  of  publication. 

In  the  second  century  we  have  hardly  material  for  a  con- 
tinuous story.  Various  manifestations  of  a  singularly  strong 
and  vivid  life,  individual  and  social,  call  for  recognition 
and  disappear.  What  united  them  all  in  one  development 
we  can  divine,  but  we  can  hardly  narrate.  It  remains  to 
piece  together  the  impressions  we  gather  of  the  communities 
that  at  Smyrna,  at  Ephesus,  at  Philippi,  at  Corinth,  at 
Eome,  at  Carthage,  at  Lyons,  in  Palestine,  in  Egypt,  and 
"  in  every  place,"  lived  or  died  for  Christ.  The  Uterature 
claims  in  this  period  more  particular  notice  than  will  be 
needful  at  later  stages;  and  we  shall  begin  with  it  the 
rather,  because  some  conception  of  the  writings  assists  the 

60 


A.D.  98-180]  THE   church's    LIFE  5 1 

mind  in  estimating  the  worth  of  condusions  drawn  from 
them  regarding  the  life  and  work  of  the  post-apostoHc 
Church.  It  has  been  usual  to  print  a  number  of  the  earliest 
post-apostolic  writings  in  a  collected  form,  under  the  name 
of  the  Apostolic  Fathers.  The  title  implied  that  the  writers, 
though  belonging  to  the  second  or  third  generation,  had 
been  in  contact  with  one  or  more  of  the  apostles.  In 
regard  to  most  of  these  writings  this  assumption  is  mis- 
leading. But  yet  it  is  convenient  to  have  them  together, 
and  the  established  title  of  the  collection  need  not  be 
disturbed.  Speaking  generally,  the  tracts  included  are  of 
earlier  date  than  the  middle  of  the  second  century;  some 
may  even  be  ascribed  with  probability  to  the  first.  It  is 
reasonable  to  include  the  recently  discovered  Didache  (see 
below)  in  this  collection ;  and  Funck,  in  his  edition,  has  set 
the  example  of  doing  so.^ 

The  Apologists  begin  about  the  reign  of  Antoninus 
(a.d.  138—161),  and  constitute  a  class  by  themselves.  This 
form  of  literary  activity,  however,  continued  long  after  the 
close  of  our  present  period. 

Hardly  less  important  for  the  student  are  the  fragments 
of  works  no  longer  in  existence,  which  have  been  preserved 
to  us  by  Eusebius  or  other  ancient  writers.^  Some  of  these 
are  printed  in  recent  editions  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  and 
more  might  be  included.  Most  of  the  Gnostic  literature, 
and  all  its  earlier  portion,  has  perished;  but  important 
fragments  are  embedded  in  the  works  of  later  authors  ^ ;  and 
the  student  has  to  realise  the  existence  of  this  literature, 
and,  as  far  as  he  can,  to  form  an  impression  of  its  character. 
Lastly,  Apocryphal  Gospels,  Acts,  and  Apocalypses  were 
coming  into  existence  for  several  hundred  years ;  the  origin 
of  some  of  them  may  with  probability  be  ascribed  to  the 
period  now  before  us,  although  even  these  have  generally 
been  much  altered  and  interpolated  at  later  dates. 

^  Editions — Cotelerius,  by  Clericus,  2  vols,    fol.,    1724 ;    Gebhardt  and 
Harnack,  1876  ;  Funck,  Tiib.  1886  ;  Lightfoot  (unfinished),  Lond.  1886, 

*  Collected,  Routh,  Reliquice  Sacrcn,  5  vols.,  Oxon.  1846. 

•  Hilgenfeld,  Ketzergeschichte  d.  UrchristeTUhwms,  1884. 


52  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHDKCH  [a.d. 

1.  Apostolic  Fathers  (so-called) 

(a)  Two  "  Epistles "  pass  under  the  name  of  Clemens 
Eomanus,  but  examination  has  shown  that  they  must  be 
treated  as  distinct  in  character  and  authorship. 

Somewhere  about  a.d.  96a"  crTaai^  "  took  place  in  the 
church  of  Corinth.  The  origin  of  it  is  not  quite  clear,  but 
one  effect  was  that  the  presbyters  were  no  longer  permitted 
to  discharge  their  functions.  The  influence  of  the  Eoman 
church  to  heal  the  breach  had  been  invited  by  the  church 
at  Corinth,  or  by  some  parties  in  it ;  and  the  letter  from 
"  the  church  that  sojourns  at  Eome  to  the  church  that 
sojourns  at  Corinth "  is  the  document  known  to  us  as  the 
First  Epistle  of  Clement.  The  writer  is  not  named  in  the 
letter,  though  his  name  appears  in  the  title  as  given  in  the 
MSS. ;  but  unbroken  tradition  from  the  middle  of  the 
second  century  ascribes  it  to  Clement,  a  notable  presbyter 
or  bishop  of  the  Eoman  church.  Still  the  letter  is  from  the 
church,  not  from  any  individual.  In  it  the  Eoman  church 
interposes  in  favour  of  harmony,  order,  and  respect  for 
constituted  authorities,  at  Corinth. 

Thus  the  earliest  extra-canonical  Christian  writing  we 
possess  is  a  letter  from  the  church  of  Eome  addressed  to  a 
sister  church  whose  affairs  were  in  confusion,  and  intended 
to  restore  order.  The  church  of  Eome,  from  its  position,  the 
character  of  its  membership,  and  the  habits  of  thought  and 
action  naturally  acquired  in  a  great  centre  of  government, 
could  interpose  in  such  cases  with  advice  which  was  likely 
to  be  wise,  and  felt  to  be  entitled  to  deference.  This  letter 
is  diffuse,  and  takes  a  pretty  wide  sweep  of  practical 
Christian  exhortation  and  Bible  citation,  some  of  which 
strikes  the  reader  as  bearing  only  remotely  on  the  practical 
questions  that  had  to  be  decided.  The  Apostles  Paul  and 
Peter  are  referred  to  with  equal  reverence.  The  sayings  of 
our  Lord  are  frequently  cited.^     The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 

1  Very  much  in  the  line  of  our  Gospels,  yet  with  enough  of  variation  of 
phrase  to  raise  questions  as  to  the  sources  on  which  the  writer  of  the  epistle 
relied. 


98-180]  THE   church's   LIFE  53 

has  made  a  strong  impression  upon  the  mind  of  Clement, 
and  its  ideas  and  language  have  coloured  his  own 
in  some  passages.  Also,  in  addition  to  echoes  of  Paul's 
teaching,  his  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  is  referred  to  by 
name.  A  little  more  explicitness  as  to  the  motives  of  the 
"movement"  party  at  Corinth,  and  as  to  the  arguments 
they  adduced,  would  have  been  very  welcome  to  modern 
students,  even  at  the  cost  of  displacing  some  of  Clement's 
generalities.  But,  considering  the  value  of  what  we  have, 
it  is  hardly  good  manners  to  complain.  The  epistle  is  sent 
in  charge  of  brethren,  who  from  youth  to  age  had  walked 
blamelessly  in  the  Koman  church. 

(&)  What  the  MSS.  and  editions  present  as  the  Second 
Epistle  of  Clement  cannot  be  certainly  localised,  though 
Eome  or  Corinth  may  be  plausibly  suggested  as  the  place  of 
origin.  The  recent  recovery  of  the  latter  part  has  proved 
(what  had  previously  been  suggested)  that  this  tract  is  not 
an  epistle  but  a  homily,  prepared  in  order  to  be  addressed 
to  a  Christian  congregation.  The  writer's  name  is  unknown, 
but  he  officiated  as  a  "  reader  "  among  the  people  whom  he 
addresses  ("  me  who  am  reading  among  you,"  c.  1 9).  An 
early  date  in  the  second  century  seems  to  be  indicated  by 
his  use  of  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians  (afterwards 
rejected  by  orthodox  churches),  and  by  modes  of  expression 
which  suggest  that  the  collision  between  the  general 
Christian  sentiment  and  Gnosticism  had  not  yet  taken 
place.  Probably  some  circumstance,  to  us  unknown,  gave 
this  sermon  special  interest  for  the  Corinthian  church,  and 
they  preserved  it  along  with  the  Eoman  epistle. 

(c)  While  the  birthplace  of  the  treatise  last  described  is 
uncertain,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas 
belongs  to  Eome.  The  book  contains  a  series  of  visions  and 
revelations  which  came  to  the  author  through  the  ministry 
first  of  a  venerable  lady,  who  proves  to  be  the  Church,  and 
secondly  of  an  angel  of  repentance  who  appears  as  a 
shepherd:  hence  the  name.  Hermas,  the  recipient  of  the 
visions,  appears  from  his  own  indications  to  have  been  a 
Koman    freedman,   a   married    man   with    a    family.     He 


54  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d 

evinces  a  lively  interest  in  the  function  of  Christian 
prophecy,  and  dwells  on  the  distinction  between  true  and 
false  prophets.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  he  con- 
sidered himself  to  be  prophetically  gifted.  He  also  dwells 
on  faults  of  the  office-bearers  of  the  church,  which  need  to 
be  repented. 

The  main  subject  of  the  book  is  the  problem  of  post- 
baptismal  sins, — how  Christians  are  to  think  and  feel  about 
them,  and  what  encouragement  they  have  to  seek  forgive- 
ness. Hermas  is  taught  that  one  opportunity  for  repentance 
of  (serious  ?)  failures  following  on  baptism  is  granted,  in 
view  of  the  near  return  of  Christ  to  close  the  dispensation ; 
and  the  importance  of  embracing  this  grace  is  pressed  on 
himself,  that  he  may  in  turn  convey  the  offer  to  others. 
The  discussion  of  the  great  subject  of  post-baptismal  sin 
begins  with  Hermas.  Incidentally,  views  on  other  points 
of  theology,  e.g.  as  to  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
are  suggested,  which  have  been  differently  explained. 

All  the  lessons  of  the  book  are  delivered  by  the  super- 
natural instructors  in  connection  with  symbolical  visions, 
which  are  afterwards  interpreted.  The  book  was  certainly 
received  with  great  respect,  and  even  quoted  as  Scripture  in 
the  second  and  third  centuries.  Eusebius  reckons  it  among 
the  Antilegomena. 

The  author  of  the  early  catalogue  of  books  (canonical 
and  non-canonical),  which  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Canon  of 
Muratori,  says  that  the  Shepherd  was  written  by  a  brother 
of  Pius  (Pius  I.)  while  the  latter  occupied  the  chair  of  the 
Eoman  church.  According  to  the  prevailing  chronology, 
this  would  indicate  for  the  publication  a  date  prior  to 
A.D.  150,  and  the  actual  writing  might  reasonably  enough  be 
carried  back  twenty  or  thirty  years  before  that  epoch. 
Hermas  himself  refers  to  "  Clemens  "  as  the  proper  party  to 
circulate  his  revelations  to  other  churches :  and  if  this 
implies  that  the  writer  was  really  a  contemporary  of  the 
notable  Eoman  Clemens,  the  date  of  Hermas'  work  must  be 
fixed  still  earlier — say,  not  later  than  110.  On  the  ground 
merely  of  the  contents  and  style  of  the  book  the  tendency 


98-180]  THE   church's   LIFE  55 

among    scholars    at    present   is   to  place  it   early, — before 
A.D.  140  at  latest. 

{d)  The  epistle  ascribed  to  Barnabas  is  also  reckoned  by 
Eusebius  among  the  Antilegomena,  and  few  nowadays  will 
regard  it  as  having  been  written  by  the  Barnabas  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  object  of  the  tract  is  to  impart  what 
is  described  as  valuable  Gnosis,  namely,  the  true  view  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  specially  of  the  Jewish  law.  The 
author  writes  with  a  considerable  sense  of  his  own  import- 
ance ;  and  his  view  is  that  the  literal  observance  of  the  law 
was  all  along  a  mistake  of  the  Jews,  who  ought  from  the 
first  to  have  taken  it  allegorically.  Of  this  allegorical 
sense  various  instances,  many  of  them  sufficiently  grotesque, 
are  explained.  The  last  three  chapters  break  away  rather 
abruptly  into  a  description  of  the  two  ways  of  life  and 
death,  i.e,  the  main  articles  of  Christian  morals.  These 
three  concluding  chapters  have  an  interesting  relation  to  the 
opening  chapters  of  the  Didache  (see  below). 

By  general  consent,  this  epistle  should  be  dated  high  in 
the  second  century,  perhaps  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  reign 
of  Hadrian  (117-131).  Some  learned  men  would  place  it 
still  earlier. 

(e)  An  Epistle  to  Diognetus  has  usually  been  printed 
with  the  Apostolic  Fathers.  The  only  MS.  ascribed  it  to 
Justin  Martyr;  but  for  various  reasons  this  is  discredited, 
and  the  author  is  unknown.  It  probably  belongs  to  the 
second  century,  though  some  great  authorities  place  it  in 
the  third ;  it  would  find  its  most  appropriate  place  among 
the  Apologies.  The  Christian  author,  writing  to  a  friend, 
pleads  for  the  truth  and  worth  of  Christianity  with  strong 
feeling,  expressed  often  with  striking  ease  and  force.  There 
was  a  Diognetus  among  the  teachers  of  the  Emperor  Marcus 
Aurelius ;  the  conjecture  that  he  might  be  the  recipient  of 
the  letter  has  nothing  to  support  it,  nor  yet  anything  to 
render  it  impossible.^ 

^  A  curious  suggestion  as  to  the  possible  origin  of  this  epistle  may  be  seen 
in  Donaldson's  Christian  Literature,  i.  p.  126,  and  in  Cotterill's  Proteus 
PeregriniLs. 


56         THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

(/)  Ignatius  of  Antioch,  who  suffered,  it  was  said,  under 
Trajan,  was  understood  to  have  written  epistles  during  his 
journey  through  Asia  Minor  to  Eome,  where  he  was  to  die. 
A  rather  intricate  literary  problem  is  connected  with  these 
letters. 

Eusebius  says  that  Ignatius  was  reported  to  have  written 
seven  letters  to  churches,  which  he  names ;  and  he  makes  a 
quotation  from  one,  that  to  the  Eomans.  This  epistle,  and 
also  those  to  the  Ephesians  and  to  Polycarp,  had  already 
been  quoted  by  writers  earlier  than  Eusebius.  After  the 
revival  of  letters,  and  before  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  successive  discoveries  furnished  the  learned  world 
with  (setting  aside  obvious  forgeries)  a  body  of  twelve  or 
thirteen  letters,  in  two  recensions — seven  of  them  addressed 
to  the  churches  named  by  Eusebius.  The  recension  which 
first  turned  up,  distinguished  as  the  longer,  presented  a  good 
many  features  which  critics  regarded  as  difficulties.  The 
other  recension  presented  a  shorter  text,  and  one  less 
objectionable,  at  least  in  the  seven  epistles  named  by 
Eusebius.  It  was  natural  to  separate  these  seven,  in  their 
shorter  form,  and  propose  them  as  the  genuine  epistles  of 
Ignatius ;  but  even  these  had  peculiarities  which  disposed  a 
number  of  learned  men  to  question  whether  the  text  even 
in  this  shorter  form  were  reliable  or  pure.  The  authen- 
ticity was  defended,  however,  by  many  Catholic  and  Anglican 
scholars.^  Both  these  recensions  existed  in  Greek,  and  also 
in  old  Latin  translations.  In  1849  Cureton  published  a 
Syriac  Ignatius^  containing  three  epistles  (to  the  Eomans, 
Ephesians,  and  Polycarp)  in  a  still  shorter  text;  and  he 
gave  his  reasons  for  maintaining  that  these  three — the  only 
epistles  cited  by  any  early  author  down  to  Eusebius — were 
the  only  genuine  letters  of  Ignatius.  This  theory  implied 
that  the  process  of  interpolating  and  forging  letters  of 
Ignatius,  which  must  in  any  view  have  begun  in  the 
fourth  century,  had  begun  before  Eusebius  wrote,  and  had 
gone  to  8uch  an  extent  as  to  lead  to  his  statement  that 

^  Pearson,  Findicics,  Camb.  1671. 
*  Corpus  Ignatianum,  London,  1849. 


88-180]  THE   church's   UFB  67 

Ignatius  (though  really  responsible  only  for  three)  was 
"reported"  to  have  written  seven  letters. 

Scholars  are  at  present  disposed  to  accept  the  short 
Greek  recension  of  the  seven  letters  named  by  Eusebius 
as  genuine.  The  best  statement  of  the  reasons  may  be 
found  in  Lightfoot's  Apostolic  FatherSy  ii.  1,  2.^ 

A  prominent  characteristic  of  the  Ignatian  epistles,  and 
one  that  gave  motive  and  energy  to  much  of  the  contro- 
versy, is  the  earnest  and  reiterated  exhortations  contained  in 
them  to  maintain  unity  in  each  church  by  adhering  to  the 
bishop  and  presbyters  and  deacons.  In  this  connection  the 
distinction  between  bishop  and  presbyter  appears,  as  weU  as 
the  importance  attached  to  this  gradation  by  the  writer. 
The  epistles,  however,  are  remarkable  also  on  other  accounts. 
They  embody  an  energetic  expression  of  Christian  religion, 
both  doctrinal  and  practical,  are  often  expressed  in  eccentric 
and  startling  phraseology,  and  reveal  a  strong  and  ardent 
character.  In  truth,  the  best  proof  of  the  genuineness  lies 
in  the  very  singularity  of  the  writings.  Interpolations  or 
corruptions  there  may  be ;  but  the  original  stamp  of  the 
writings  as  a  whole  does  not  agree  well  with  the  suggestion 
of  forgery. 

If  Ignatius  suffered  under  Trajan,  as  tradition  reports, 
the  date  of  the  epistles  may  be  placed  at  a.d.  115.  Lipsius 
and  Harnack  on  different  grounds  argued  that  the  date 
might  be  considerably  later  —  say  130  or  140,  —  which 
would  remove  some  historical  difficulties.  But  the  argu- 
ments adduced  have  not  procured  general  acceptance  for 
this  position.^ 

(g)  Poly  carp  stood  at  the  head  of  the  church  at  Smyrna; 
according  to  the  testimony  of  his  scholar  Irenseus,  he  had 
listened  to  the  teaching  of  the  Apostle  John.  Irenseus  also 
mentions  that  he  wrote  various  epistles,  including  one  to  the 
Philippians.  This  alone  has  been  preserved.  It  is  written 
in  reply  to  one  from  the  Philippian  Christians,  and  consists 

^  See  also  Zahn.  Ignatiiis,  1876. 

*  Harnack,  in  Altchrisdiche  LUeratur,  now  says  probably  before  A.I>.  117| 
possibly  a  few  years  later. 


58  THE   ANCIENT  CATHOLIC   CHUECH  [a.d. 

mainly  of  practical  exhortations.  Various  passages  from 
gospels  and  epistles  occur,  generally  without  express  citation. 
The  genuineness  is  acknowledged  by  most ;  but  as  the  death 
and  the  letters  of  Ignatius  are  referred  to,  those  who  continue 
to  reject  the  Ignatian  letters  are  led  to  reject  that  of  Polycarp 
also  in  whole  or  in  part.  The  date  cannot  be  very  long  after 
the  death  of  Ignatius — at  a  time,  therefore,  when  Polycarp 
was  comparatively  a  young  man.  His  martyrdom  is  ascribed 
to  the  year  155.  The  interesting  account  of  his  death  which 
is  embodied  in  a  letter  from  the  church  of  Smyrna,  must  have 
followed  soon  after. 

{h)  The  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  (AiSaxv  rcou 
BcoBeKa  ^ Airoa-ToXoDv)  became  known  in  1883,  when  it  was 
published  by  Bryennius  from  a  MS.  found  at  Constantin- 
ople. It  proved  to  be  a  writing  once  cited  by  Origen  as 
"Scripture,"  ranked  by  Eusebius  among  the  Antilegomena, 
and  referred  to  by  Athanasius  as  containing  nothing 
heretical,  and  as  fit  to  be  read  to  those  who  are  begin- 
ning to  receive  Christian  instruction.  Part  of  it  had  been 
worked  up  into  another  old  book,  generally  known  as  the 
Apostolic  Church  Ordinances^  and  the  whole  of  it  was  before 
the  author  of  the  seventh  book  of  the  Apostolic  Constitutions 
(fourth  cent.),  who  dealt  in  the  spirit  of  a  later  age  with  the 
materials  it  supplied.  The  Didache,  therefore,  had  a  recog- 
nised position  and  considerable  importance  at  an  early  period 
of  the  Church's  history ;  but  by  the  time  of  Eusebius  and 
Athanasius  it  had  become  antiquated  and  was  practically 
superseded,  though  treated  with  traditional  respect. 

The  book  (equal  in  size  to  one  of  the  shorter  Pauline 
Epistles)  is  a  kind  of  **  Institution  of  a  Christian  man  " ; 
only  it  embraces  also  simple  instruction  in  church  life  and 
worship,  such  as  might  conceivably  be  very  useful  in  smaller 
societies  of  Christians,  whose  ideas  were  in  some  respects 
rudimentary.  It  begins  with  plain  Christian  morals — the 
doctrine  of  the  Two  Ways.  This  is  the  same  in  substance 
with  the  closing  chapters  of  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  only 
the  items  are  differently,  perhaps  better,  arranged.  The 
influence  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  distinctly  visible ; 


98-180]  THE   church's   LIFE  59 

but  plain  duties  and  gross  sins  are  commended  on  the  one 
hand  and  prohibited  on  the  other  with  great  particularity. 
A  Jewish  basis  for  this  part  of  the  book  has  been  strongly 
maintained.  The  transition  to  the  more  ecclesiastical  part 
is  made  by  directing  that,  after  the  disciple  has  received 
the  moral  instruction  of  the  first  part,  he  is  to  be  baptized. 
The  manner  of  church  services,  administration  of  sacraments, 
and  maintenance  of  discipline,  are  all  touched,  so  as  to  give 
a  vivid  glimpse  of  the  early  Christian  communities.  One 
interesting  feature  is  the  recognition  of  apostles,  prophets, 
and  teachers  as  labourers  in  the  churches.  Of  them  much 
is  said,  while  bishops  and  deacons  are  disposed  of  in  a  single 
sentence.  The  tract  closes  with  solemn  anticipation  of  the 
coming  of  Christ,  and  of  the  Judgment. 

The  date  cannot  well  be  later  than  a.d.  140.  Some 
would  carry  it  up  to  the  very  beginning  of  the  second 
century,  or  even  to  the  end  of  the  first.  The  way  in  which 
the  book  bears  on  debated  questions  has  some  influence  in 
leading  different  minds  to  lean  in  the  one  direction  or  in  the 
other. 

The  title  of  the  book  is  not  meant  to  claim  actual 
apostolic  authorship  for  it,  but  only  to  indicate  that  the 
directions  it  contains  represented  faithfully  the  apostolic 
teaching  as  received  in  the  churches.  In  later  collections 
of  church  rules  the  apostles  are  introduced  speaking,  and 
are  made  individually  responsible,  each  for  his  own  con- 
tribution. A  similar  origin  came  at  length  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  twelve  articles  of  the  so-called  Apostles'  Creed. 

We  proceed  to  notice  works  of  early  writers  of  which 
no  MSS.  have  survived,  and  which  are  represented  by  frag- 
ments, being  citations  of  the  lost  authors  by  later  writers. 
We  owe  most  of  them  to  Eusebius.  Among  the  earlier  may 
be  specified  Papias  and  Hegesippus.^ 

The  remains  of  Papias  are  scanty.     He  was  bishop  of 

HierapoHs  in  Upper  Phrygia;  and  Irenseus  describes  him 

as  having  heard  apostles;    which,  however,  Eusebius  with 

reason  doubts.     He  took  a  pecuHar  interest  in  collecting 

*  Collected  in  Eouth's  Beliquice  Saerx,  vol.  L,  Oxen.  1846. 


60  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

traditions  of  men  who  had  seen  and  heard  the  apostles, 
and  published  a  work  in  four  books  (Xoylcov  KvpcaKcov 
i^rj'yqaLs:).  The  most  important  fragment  is  that  referring 
to  the  origin  of  the  Gospels  according  to  Matthew  and 
Mark,  which  has  given  rise  to  immense  discussion  in  con- 
nection with  the  Synoptic  problem.  The  other  fragments 
give  no  high  idea  of  the  author's  sense  or  discrimination. 
Papias  is  usually  placed  about  a.d.   145-160. 

Hegesippus  lived  till  late  in  the  second  century;  but 
about  the  middle  of  it  he  made  an  important  journey  of 
inquiry  into  the  state  and  teaching  of  various  churches. 
He  is  described  as  a  man  probably  of  Jewish  extraction,  at 
all  events  familiar  with  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews, 
with  Syriac  and  Hebrew  writings,  and  with  Jewish  tradi- 
tions. Hence  Baur  assumed,  and  argued  from  the  assump- 
tion, that  he  was  an  Ebionite  Christian ;  but  this  view  is 
now  generally  rejected.  He  wrote  five  books  of  virofivrj- 
/juara  (after  A.D.  160  ?),  from  which  Eusebius  extracted 
historical  notices.  It  is  probable  that  he  argued  against 
rising  heresies  from  the  information  he  had  gathered  as  to  the 
history  and  teaching  of  various  churches.  If  so,  he  inaugu- 
rated a  line  of  argument  which  was  to  fill  a  large  place  in 
later  discussions. 

2.  Apologists 

More  homogeneous  than  these  tracts  is  the  branch  of 
early  literature  which  takes  the  title  of  the  "  Apologists."  ^ 
For  our  period  the  names  included  are  those  of  Quadratus, 
Aristides,  Justin  Martyr,  Tatian,  Athenagoras,  Minucius  Felix 
(placed  later  by  some  authorities),  Mehto,  and  (perhaps) 
Hermias.  The  work  of  Quadratus  is  lost ;  that  of  Aristides 
has  quite  lately  been  recovered  in  a  form  which  represents 
at  least  its  main  features.^  Both  are  said  by  Eusebius  to 
have  addressed   themselves  to   Hadrian;  but   the  work  of 

^  The  characteristics  of  this  Christian  Apologetic  are  discussed  in  a  sub- 
sequent chapter.     The  writings  are  collected  by  Otto,  6  vols.,  Jena,  1876. 

*'»  Texts  and  Studies,  i,  1,  Cambridge,  1893 ;  Texte  u,  Vhters,  ix.  1, 
1893. 


98-180]  THE   church's   LIFE  61 

Aristides,  at  least,  appears  to  have  been  really  addressed  to 
Antoninus  Pius  (a.d.   138-161). 

Of  Justin  Martyr  we  have  two  Apologies  and  an 
elaborate  treatise  {Dial.  c.  Tryphone)  expounding  the  Chris- 
tian argument  to  the  Jews.  They  date  about  the  middle  of 
the  century,  and  are  of  the  highest  value  as  historical 
documents. 

Justin  was  a  student  of  philosophy ;  sought  satisfaction 
for  his  mind  and  heart  in  various  schools ;  according  to  his 
own  account  was  impressed  and  attracted  to  Christ  by  a 
venerable  stranger  whom  he  met  on  the  seashore,  perhaps 
in  some  part  of  Palestine.  After  his  conversion  he  con- 
tinued to  profess  himself  a  philosopher,  for  he  believed  that 
he  had  found  the  true  wisdom.  But  he  was  at  the  same 
time  a  warm-hearted  and  courageous  Christian  man,  and  he 
was  honoured  eventually  to  give  up  his  life  for  his  faith. 
His  pupil,  Tatian,  an  Assyrian,  has  left  an  Apology,  written 
with  glowing  scorn  of  the  Greek  wisdom,  which  Christianity, 
the  religion  of  barbarians,  puts  to  shame.  Tatian  is  re- 
proached as  having  lapsed  into  a  heresy  (Encratite),  pushing 
asceticism  to  the  extreme  of  condemning,  as  intrinsically 
evil,  the  created  things  from  which,  as  an  ascetic,  he  refrained. 
He  imbibed  also  some  Gnostic  views.  He  returned  to  the 
East  after  the  death  of  Justin,  and  put  abroad  a  Harmony 
in  Greek  of  the  four  Gospels,  which  long  continued  to  be 
used  for  public  reading  in  various  Eastern  churches.  The 
substance  of  it  has  lately  been  recovered.^ 

Of  the  history  of  Athenagoras,  "an  Athenian  and  a 
philosopher,"  little  is  known ;  but  he  has  left  a  pleading 
{irpea^eld)  addressed  to  Marcus  Aurelius  (prob.  a.d.  176), 
in  which  the  accusations  commonly  brought  against  the 
Christians  are  discussed  and  refuted.  There  is  also  a  tract 
on  the  Resurrection,  in  which  the  difficulties  suggested  by 
that  doctrine  are  carefully  discussed.  Theophilus  was 
bishop  of  Antioch ;  among  other  works  which  are  lost,  he 
addressed  to  Autolycus,  a  man  of  education  and  culture,  an 

^  Zahn,  Forschung.  z,  N.T.  Kanon,  i.,  Erl.  1881 ;  Texte  u.  Unters,  I  1883 ; 
MoUer,  art  "Tatian,"  in  Beai-ETicyd.,  2nd  ed. 


62  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

argument  in  favour  of  Christianity.  It  is  weak  in  logic 
and  not  particulary  admirable  in  tone,  comparing  unfavour- 
ably with  several  of  the  early  Apologies} 

All  these  wrote  in  Greek.  The  Odavius  of  Minucius 
Felix  is  in  Latin.  The  author  was  a  Eoman  lawyer ;  and 
those  who  wish  to  see  how  a  Christian  of  that  profession 
in  the  second  century  could  occupy  his  holidays,  ought  to 
read  at  least  the  charming  introduction  to  the  argument. 

Fragments  only  remain  of  the  writings  of  Melito,  bishop 
of  Sardis.  He,  too,  was  an  apologist ;  but  he  was  much 
more,  for  he  took  an  active  part  in  all  the  questions  of  his 
time,  and  more  than  twenty  of  his  writings  are  referred  to 
by  later  authors.  He  recorded  the  result  of  inquiries  about 
the  canon  of  the  Old  Testament,  debated  against  Montanism, 
advocated  the  Asiatic  practice  in  regard  to  Easter,  wrote  on 
the  incarnation,  on  baptism,  and  on  various  other  topics.  In 
him  we  see  how,  as  the  second  century  advanced,  the  im- 
portance of  literary  discussion  becomes  more  sensible  in  con- 
nection with  every  Christian  interest.  A  public  existed  who 
could  be  reached,  and  for  whom  it  was  worth  while  to  write. 

Other  writers  of  the  period  whose  works  are  lost,  like 
Apollonius  of  Hierapolis  (an  apologist  and  controversialist), 
Miltiades,  Dionysius  of  Corinth,  and  the  like,  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  dwell  on.  They  remind  us  that  Christian  pens 
were  active  in  the  latter  half  of  the  second  century. 


3.  Apocrypha 

It  is  right,  however,  before  leaving  the  literature  to 
refer  to  the  Apocryphal  Gospels,  Acts,  and  Apocalypses, 
which  were  already  beginning  to  appear.  Here  a  distinction 
must  be  made.  Versions  of  the  gospel  narrative  (re- 
sembling apparently  our  canonical  Gospels)  had  come  down 
from  the  previous  century :  they  were  in  use  in  some  circles, 
and  are  quoted  by  catholic  writers,  but  were  not  eventually 
regarded  as  authoritative,  and  have  perished.     This  descrip- 

*  Hermias  may  or  may  not  belong  to  this  century.     His  tract  is  a  satirical 
attack  on  the  Greek  philosophy. 


98-180]  THE   church's   LIFE  63 

tion  applies  to  the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews  and  the  Gospel 
of  the  Egyptians,  of  both  of  which  we  have  fragments. 
From  them  are  to  be  distinguished  a  quantity  of  writings, 
due  partly  to  the  desire  to  satisfy  a  craving  for  romantic 
detail,  and  partly  to  the  wish  to  find  access,  in  this  form, 
for  new  sectarian  teaching.  The  dates  of  many  of  these 
writings  are  difficult  to  fix,  all  the  more  that  many  of  them 
existed  in  several  successive  forms,  the  relations  of  which 
are  not  easily  disentangled.  The  subject  has  a  history  of 
its  own,  which  must  be  followed  out  in  works  specially 
devoted  to  the  subject.^ 

The  Gnostics  were  active  in  the  production  of  this  class 
of  writings.  They  were  no  doubt  read  with  avidity,  and 
they  could  be  made  the  means  of  insinuating  opinions  which 
were  less  likely  to  be  acceptable  if  plainly  propounded.  To 
our  period  belongs  the  Gospel  of  the  Childhood  ascribed  to 
James  the  less,  afterwards  worked  up  into  the  Gospel  of 
Nicodemus.  Eecently  a  discovery  in  Egypt  has  made 
known  to  us  considerable  parts  of  the  Gospel  of  Peter ^^  and 
also  of  the  Apocalypse  of  Peter.  The  former  was  known, 
before  the  year  200,  to  Serapion,  bishop  of  Antioch,  as  a 
gospel  which  betrayed  docetic  tendencies.  The  fragment 
recovered  contains  an  account  of  our  Lord's  passion,  of  great 
interest,  both  for  its  agreement  with,  and  its  divergence 
from,  the  account  in  the  canonical  Gospels.  The  Apocalypse 
contains  a  representation  supposed  to  be  given  by  our  Lord 
to  Peter  (after  the  resurrection  ?)  of  the  experiences  both  of 
the  blessed  and  of  the  lost  in  the  other  world.  It  stands 
at  the  head  of  a  great  Christian  literature,  which  has  dealt 
with  the  hopes  and  fears  of  men  through  representations  of 
this  kind. 

A  work  of  considerable  interest  is  the  Testament  of  the 
Twelve  Patriarchs^  in  which  the  twelve  sons  of  Jacob  are 

^Thilo,  Cod.  Apoc.  N.T.,  Lips.  1832  f.  TischendoTf,  £v.  Apocr.,Lei^z. 
1876;  Acta  Ap.  apocr.,  Leipz.  1851  ;  Apocal.  apocr.,  Leipz.  1866.  And  see, 
especially,  articles  by  Lipsius  on  Acts,  Apocalypses,  Gospels,  in  Smith's  Diet, 
of  Christian  Biojraphy. 

*  Swete,  Oosjml  of  Peter,  London,  1893.  Text  of  both  writings,  Texte  u. 
Unters,  ix.  2,  1893. 


64  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  U.D. 

introduced  uttering,  each  upon  his  deathbed,  prophetic  inti- 
mations and  warnings  to  his  descendants.  These  lead  up  to 
the  appearance  and  death  of  Christ,  the  supersession  of  the 
Jews,  as  the  people  of  God,  by  the  Christians,  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  and  so  forth.  The  book  may  be  earlier 
than  A.D.  180 — at  all  events  earlier  than  Origen.  It  seems 
likely  that  the  Testament,  as  we  know  it,  rests  upon  an 
earher  Jewish  work,  of  which  ours  is  a  Christian  adaptation. 
At  all  events,  the  very  conception  of  the  book,  and  its 
execution,  indicate  a  Jewish  point  of  view,  and  the  influence 
of  earlier  Jewish  models. 

In  this  connection  it  is  to  be  noted  that  various  Jewish 
works  of  an  apocalyptic  kind  were  received  among  Christians 
with  great  respect,  and  exerted  considerable  influence.  The 
chief  of  these  were — 

{a)  The  Booh  of  ETWchy  preserved  in  an  ^thiopic  trans- 
lation from  a  Greek  original,  which  may  itself  have  been 
preceded  by  a  Hebrew  one.  Enoch,  after  some  introductory 
visions,  is  carried  through  the  whole  universe,  surveying  the 
mysteries  of  earth,  heaven,  and  hell,  which  he  recounts  to 
Methuselah ;  and  visions  follow,  in  which  the  history  of  the 
human  race  as  related  to  righteousness,  sin,  and  judgment  is 
set  forth.  Some  critics  recognise  several  hands, — the  work 
of  one  going  back  perhaps  as  far  as  the  second  century  B.O. ; 
and  the  book  may  have  been  revised  in  a  Christian  interest 
in  the  first  century  A.D.  Christian  authorship  of  cc.  37—71 
has  been  strongly  maintained. 

In  addition  to  the  ^thiopic  version  of  this  book, 
which  is  familiar  to  scholars,  a  Slavonic  Enoch  has  recently 
been  discovered.  It  traces  back  to  a  Greek  original  distinct 
from  that  on  which  the  ^thiopic  is  based,  and  it  also  is 
ascribed  to  the  first  century. 

(6)  The  Booh  of  JuMlees  (also  Little  Genesis),  with 
legendary  explanations  of  the  early  biblical  history.  This 
also  dates  from  the  first  century. 

(c)  The  Fourth  Booh  of  Ezra,  a  kind  of  theodicy ;  also, 
perhaps,  of  the  first  century. 

(d)  The  Assumption  of  Moses,  which  has  survived  in  an 


98-180]  THE   church's   LIFE  65 

old  Latin  translation.  The  last  editor,  Mr.  Charles,  ascribes 
it  to  a  date  not  later  than  a.d.  120. 

An  important  Gnostic  literature  began  to  arise  in  the 
second  century  and  continued  into  the  third.  The  frag- 
ments which  survive,  especially  of  the  earlier  writings,  are 
scanty.^ 

The  accounts  of  martyrdoms  have  been  referred  to  in 
another  connection.  They  were  very  liable  to  be  revised  in 
the  sense  of  a  later  time ;  hence  the  date  and  value  of  these 
narratives  as  we  now  have  them  is  often  very  debatable. 
But  the  Acts  cited  on  an  earlier  page  are  well  established. 

*  Hilgenfeld  has  collected  the  fr;igments,  Ketzergeschichte  des  Urchristen- 
ihutns,  1884 ;  Fistis  Sophia,  Berol.  1852. 


CHAPTEE   IV 

Beliefs  and  Sacraments 

Discussions  for  many  years  on  the  birth  and  growth  of  the  Church  have 
left  an  almost  boundless  literature  on  this  subject.  Besides  all 
general  histories,  see  F.  C.  Baur,  Vorles.  ueber  die  Christliche 
Bogmengesch.  1866,  4  vols.  ;  Harnack,  History  of  Dogma,  transl.  by 
Buchanan,  vol.  i.,  Lond.  1894 ;  Loofs,  Dogmengeschichte,  Halle,  1893. 
On  rites.  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Antiquities,  London,  1875  (unequal). 

Varieties  of  tendency  and  of  attainment  appear  in  any 
Christian  society  or  set  of  societies.  In  the  early  Church, 
allowance  must  also  be  made  for  progress  and  change  due 
to  a  time  of  rapid  growth.  Before  the  end  of  our  period 
Gnosticism,  and  Montanism,  and  the  special  tendencies  of 
the  apologetic  writers,  all  had  time  to  make  their  impres- 
sion. Some  churches,  too,  were  more  sheltered  from  such 
influences,  while  on  some  they  played  incessantly.  Hence 
old  fashions  could  appear  alongside  of  new  ones.  What 
is  now  to  be  said  must  be  subject  to  the  qualifications 
which  this  state  of  things  suggests. 

Perhaps  the  most  needful  preparation  for  appreciating 
the  beliefs  of  the  early  Chm'ch,  is  to  get  rid  of  the 
assumption  or  impression  that  the  post-apostolic  Church 
started  with  the  fulness  of  the  apostolic  teaching,  as  that 
is  embodied,  for  instance,  in  the  New  Testament.  That 
is  a  natural  assumption,  and  it  is  often  made  without  a 
thought;  but  it  is  entirely  opposed  to  facts.  What  the 
apostles  and  some  others  of  their  generation  taught  is 
one  thing;  what  the  Church  proved  able  to  receive  is 
quite  another.  The  tradition  of  the  apostolic  ministry 
was  vivid;  the  writings  embodying  its  message,  which  we 


A.D.  98-180]  BELIEFS   AND   SACRAMENTS  67 

still  possess,  were  circulating,  and  they  were  soon  collected 
and  set  apart  as  a  special  deposit.  But  the  Church, 
which  had  a  glowing  sense  of  the  worth  of  Christianity, 
had  as  yet  laid  but  feeble  and  partial  hold  on  its  treasures 
of  wisdom  and  knowledge.  Elementariness  is  the  signa- 
ture of  all  the  early  literature.  It  is  not  for  that  the 
less  Christian ;  and  anything  else  would  be  non-natural ; 
but  the  fact  must  be  emphasised.  The  Church  had  waded 
as  yet  but  a  little  way  into  this  wide  sea.  Great  elements 
of  apostolic  teaching  had  hardly  become  at  all  audible. 
But,  especially,  much  that  did  float  round  Christian  minds, 
and  that  is  rehearsed  at  times  in  the  writings,  has  not 
revealed  its  significance.  Its  meaning  is  caught  faintly; 
the  thoughts  it  awakens  are  indefinite.  The  apostles 
speak  with  power  and  certainty  of  great  spiritual  facts 
and  forces,  whose  being  and  whose  laws  are  clear  to  them. 
But  to  their  disciples  the  meaning  is  often  dim  and 
the  impression  dubious,  so  that  the  range  of  prin- 
ciples remains  hidden.  All  this  was  inevitable;  it  would 
have  been  so  with  the  wisest  and  the  best  of  us  in  their 
place.  Ages  of  study,  of  meditation,  of  controversies,  of 
obedience,  of  devotion,  of  discipline  were  to  work  the 
meaning  of  the  New  Testament  teaching  into  the  mind 
of  Christendom.  It  was  enough  for  the  early  Church  that 
some  bright  central  certainties  held  them  fast,  filled  and 
fixed  their  souls  with  full  assurance.  Under  the  influence 
of  these,  it  was  easy  for  them  to  believe  that  the  great 
inheritance  of  truth  and  grace  stretched  much  farther  than 
their  eyes  could  see. 

Where  doctrines  have  been  crystallised  by  controversy 
it  is  easy  to  give  an  account  of  them.  As  that  had  not 
yet  taken  place,  the  state  of  the  Christian  mind  must  be 
indicated  by  description. 

Perhaps  nothing  strikes  one  more    than    the    singular 

moral     heat  —  the    enthusiasm    about    goodness  —  which 

we  meet   in  the    Christian  writings.^      To    be  good  is  no 

longer  a  doctrine  of  philosophy  or  a  matter  of  taste ;  it  is 

*  Donaldson,  Christian  Lit.  i.  p.  84. 


68  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

a  calling,  a  career ;  a  summons,  as  imperative  as  it  is 
wonderful,  has  awakened  men  to  it.  There  broke  into 
consciousness  among  the  Christians  a  new  relation  to  the 
moral  standard.  The  standard  itself  is  often  set  forth  in 
terms  not  very  different  from  those  of  the  Stoic  moralists, 
or  in  terms  of  the  Jewish  law  idealised  on  Stoic  lines. 
Often,  no  doubt,  the  inwardness  of  it,  and  the  stress  laid 
on  love,  forgiveness  of  wrongs,  meekness,  gentleness, 
humility,  helpfulness,  proclaim  the  new  influences  that 
are  at  work.  Generally,  however,  it  is  not  so  much  the 
definition  of  the  standard  that  is  important,  but  the  new 
relation  to  it.  It  has  become  for  Christians  their  inherit- 
ance to  be  realised,  their  proper  destiny  to  be  achieved,  the 
field  on  which  they  are  to  make  good  the  reality — the  glory 
— of  the  religion  which  has  taken  them  captive. 

Already  some  approved  asceticisms  are  beginning  to 
be  valued  and  to  be  accepted  as  rules  of  life.  With 
some  this  expressed  simply  the  wish  to  be  like  Christ, 
who  was  poor.  Again,  as  all  Christian  goodness  implies 
self  -  discipline  and  self  -  repression,  as  steady  preference  of 
the  higher  aim  implies  repression  of  the  lower  impulse, 
it  becomes  plausible  to  infer  that  increase  of  self-sacrifice 
will  certainly  be  gain  in  goodness.  Once  more,  the  desire 
to  make  sure  of  one's  own  honesty  and  thoroughness,  to 
make  sure  that  no  weakness  is  cherished  and  no  hardness  is 
declined,  disposes  some  to  reckon  exceptional  asceticism  the 
safer  and  the  worthier  course.  This  does  not  go  much 
beyond  the  legitimate  liberty  of  choosing  what  seems  best 
for  a  man's  own  Christian  life;  but  it  does  go  somewhat 
further.^  Yet  a  benignant  way  of  looking  at  natural  ties, 
and  a  consciousness  of  God's  presence  in  them  all,  are  still 
able  to  avert  extremes.^ 

This  moral  enthusiasm  was  supported  and  deepened 
by  fear.  For  the  difficulties  were  not  disguised, — the 
strength  of  temptation,  the  weakness  of  the  flesh,  the  sad 
possibility  of   falls.      Yet,   long   as   the  race   may  be,  and 

^  It  figures  as  the  whole  yoke  of  the  Lord,  Did.  vi.  ;  2  Clem.  Eom.  vii.  3. 
^  In  many  passages — 1  Clem.  Rom.  i.  1,  2  ;  Ad  Diogn.  5, 


98-180]  BELIEFS   AND   SACRAMENTS  69 

hard  the  btattle,  tliere  is  nothing  for  it  but  victory ;  nothing 
less  than  that  will  do.  And  what  they  seek  is  a 
victory  of  them  all,  as  a  company  that  would  fain  triumph 
together.  "  Let  us  turn  with  all  our  hearts,  that  no  one 
of  us  may  be  lost.  For  if  we  have  commandments  (and 
keep  them)  to  draw  men  from  idols  and  to  instruct  them, 
how  much  more  is  it  fit  that  no  soul  that  has  once  known 
God  should  perish !  So  let  us  support  one  another,  and 
stir  up  the  weak  in  goodness,  that  we  may  be  saved,  all  of 
us,  converting  and  exhorting  one  another."  ^  This  morality 
was  imperative  for  its  own  sake ;  but  not  only  for  its  own 
sake.  It  was  the  only  genuine  form  in  which  a  man  could 
respond  to  the  divine  compassion ;  it  was  the  one  approved 
career  along  which  to  reach  the  fulness  of  the  life  eternal. 

In  the  closest  connection  with  this  is  the  vivid  Chris- 
tian consciousness  of  being  face  to  face  with  the  decisions 
of  eternity.  The  whole  weight  of  the  contrast  between 
good  and  evil  was  to  embody  itself  in  final  weal  and 
woe ;  and  the  day  of  this  judgment  was  speeding  on.  It 
was  near,  though  no  man  knew  how  near;  at  farthest 
death  was  not  far  off,  and  that  sealed  men  up  for  judg- 
ment. The  intensity  of  conviction  as  to  this  is  one 
of  the  most  striking  things  about  the  Christians.  The 
uncertainty  about  a  world  to  come  in  classic  religion 
and  philosophy  is  notorious.  The  Jews  had  specula- 
tions about  it,  which  embodied  the  thought  of  retribu- 
tion, but  these  lacked  finality.  According  to  their 
Apocalypse  there  is  no  last  end  of  anything.^  For  the 
Christians,  the  hope  of  complete  and  unending  well-being 
rose  into  view,  in  vivid  contrast  with  the  doom  prepared  for 
sin  and  apostasy.  Almost  no  Christian  exhortation  omits 
these  topics ;  and  they  came  instinctively  to  the  lips  of 
the  martyrs  when  tempted  to  deny  their  faith.  These  great 
alternatives  were  speeding  on.  And  they  were  felt  reaching 
into  each  day's  business,  and  transforming  the  values  of  all 
things  here. 

The  power  which  kept  all  this  alive   is   to  be   found, 
*  2  Clem.  Rom.  xvii.  1,  2.  2  Harnack,  Dogmengesch.  i.  p.  120. 


70  THE   ANCIENT    CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

beyond  a  doubt,  in  the  Christian  convictions  about  "  the  things 
surely  believed  among  us."  God  had  made  Himself  known.^ 
Quite  recently  He  had  revealed  Himself  in  the  world 
through  Jesus  Christ;  and  this  was  His  complete,  His 
decisive  revelation.  Men  had  longed,  had  yearned,  had 
looked  and  listened,  had  hoped  and  feared.  Now  God 
had  spoken ;  He  had  emerged  upon  human  souls.  One, 
Spiritual,  Supreme,  Eternal,  the  fountain  of  all  being  and 
object  of  all  worship ;  yet  having  a  mind  and  care  for 
each  man,  accessible  to  each  man,  intent  on  the  character 
of  each,  calling  each  man  to  fellowship  with  Himself.  He 
came,  with  perfect  truth  and  effectual  pity,  recognising  the 
problem  of  the  world's  sin  and  providing  the  remedy,  by 
coming  down  into  it  in  His  Sou.  In  this  presence  man's 
life  assumed  a  new  significance.  The  hour  had  struck  for 
applying  judgment.  Former  ages  with  their  relaxed  or 
depraved  manners  God  had  in  some  sense  tolerated.  Now 
He  commanded  all  men  to  repent.  Things  became  clear 
and  sure. 

In  particular,  Christ  Himself  was  unique.  In  Him 
arrived  the  great  illumination  alike  of  duty  and  of 
destiny.  By  Him,  God,  and  human  life,  the  great  choice, 
and  the  eternal  issues,  had  been  set  in  an  intense  blaze 
of  light.  Nor  did  He  reveal  only  (which  was  easily  ex- 
pounded), He  also  saved.  How  He  did  so  was  not  so 
well  explained ;  but  it  was  felt  and  believed.  He  washed 
us  from  our  sins,  broke  the  chain  that  bound  us,  brought 
life  within  our  reach,  made  it  an  altogether  hopeful  thing 
for  us  to  choose  the  better  part.  A  great  deal  of  New 
Testament  teaching  about  this  was  apprehended  not  at  all, 
or  in  the  vaguest  way;  but  the  thing  itself  was  sure. 
Also,  Christ  was  coming  again  to  judge  quick  and  dead, 
and  to  fulfil  all  the  promises.  Along  with  all  this  the 
conviction  that  Christ  was  not  merely  human  but  divine 
went  hand  in  hand,  and  is  quite  frankly  expressed.  With 
some  it  is  more  in  the  foreground  of  their  thought,  with 
others  more  in  the  background.  We  have  already  met 
1  Ad  Diogn.  7  ;  2  Clem.  Rom.  i.  5-8,  etc 


98-180]  BELIEFS    AND   SACRAMENTS  Vl 

with  Christians,  generally  of  Jewish  origin,  who  claimed  for 
Christ  only  a  pure  and  lofty  manhood  ;  and  others,  ascribing 
to  Him  a  supramundane  nature,  thought  of  His  manhood 
as  something  fleeting  and  unreal.  But  beyond  all  reason- 
able doubt  the  mass  of  Christians  regarded  Him  as  both 
divine  and  human.  How  many  of  them,  if  forced  to  ex- 
plain themselves,  would  have  explained  in  the  line  of  later 
Councils,  is  debatable.  But  the  two  aspects  of  Christ  were 
present,  dimly  or  clearly.  With  the  Father  and  the  Son 
the  Holy  Spirit  took  His  place  in  Christian  minds ;  that  was 
settled  by  the  formula  of  baptism  (Matt,  xxviii.).^ 

As  to  the  salvation  of  the  individual  under  Chris- 
tianity, two  moods  of  mind  strove  with  one  another  ;  on 
the  one  hand,  the  sense  of  divine  goodwill  and  help — 
which  must  be  all-sufficient ;  on  the  other  hand,  a  sense  of 
dangers  which  called  for  the  utmost  effort.  When  it  comes 
to  particulars,  it  often  seems  as  if  the  Christian,  after  baptism, 
under  the  moral  influences  of  Christianity,  must  get  along 
as  well  as  he  can — must  in  that  view  save  himself ;  yet,  on 
the  other  side,  the  impression  comes  out  with  no  less  force 
that  Christianity  really  brings  life  eternal  within  our  reach, 
and  expresses  a  benignity  so  near  and  real  that  no  hopes 
can  be  too  high.^ 

But,  at  all  events,  whatever  perplexity  might  beset  the 
question  of  the  individual,  something  definite  and  bright 
rose  to  view  in  thinking  of  the  Church.  Certainly  Christ 
meant  to  have  a  Church,  and  should  not  be  disappointed ; 
the  Church  is  destined  to  victory  and  life  everlasting. 
That  did  not  imply  the  final  well-being  of  all  her  children: 
as  the  Church  fought  her  way  onwards,  many  a  member 
might  be  snatched  from  her  by  the  powers  of  evil.  But 
the  Church  must  survive ;  through  all  assaults  she  is 
destined  to  victory ;  and  meanwhile  the  loving  presence  of 
the  Lord,  of  which  the  individual  could  not  always  assure 
himself,  could  be  more  confidently  counted  on  in  the 
Church.      Hence  association  with   the   Church,  cultivating 

^  This  subject  comes  up  again  in  the  chapter  on  Christ  and  God. 
*  Implied,  e.g.^  in  prayer,  Hermas,  Mand.  ix. 


72  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.D. 

its  fellowship  and  observances,  breathing  the  atmosphere 
of  its  common  life,  promoted  present  Christian  comfort,  and 
became  the  pledge  of  Christian  hope.  As  the  Christians 
held  together  in  this  line  they  could  most  fully  feel  the 
Lord's  presence  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  could  be  strong  to 
overcome  the  world. 

This  was  so  much  the  more  natural,  because  the  power 
of  evil,  also,  was  conceived  as  a  concrete  system,  a  king- 
dom, with  its  Satanic  head,^  its  inspiring  and  energising 
demons,  and  its  concrete  embodiments  and  agencies  through- 
out the  world.  All  that  was  unchristian  or  antichristian 
fell  under  this  conception.  The  machinery  of  the  great 
system  was  at  work  everywhere.  How  could  a  Christian 
feel  safe,  except  as  he  felt  himself  participant  of  the 
common  social  life  of  the  counter-kingdom,  the  despised 
but  invincible  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  God  ? 

Everything  in  Christianity  was  divine, — it  came  from 
divine  revelation,  and  was  animated  by  divine  life.  The 
Church  therefore,  which  is  the  completest  earthly  embodi- 
ment of  Christianity,  must  eminently  be  divine.  It  in- 
cluded much  human  weakness  and  inconsistency ;  but  its 
institutions  and  its  life  were  from  on  high.  Hence  a  very 
visible  tendency  prevails  to  hold  every  institution  and  ob- 
servance, which  at  any  time  found  acceptance  in  the  Church, 
as  something  divine,  original,  apostolic.  Change  went  on, 
but  the  results  of  change  were  canonised.  This  is  con- 
tinuously exemplified  all  down  the  history.^ 

Christians  lived  in  the  expectation  of  the  Lord's  return 
in  power  and  great  glory,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
and  the  judgment,  with  the  separate  issues  of  the  righteous 
and  the  wicked.  These  events,  according  to  the  general 
impression,  were  not  to  be  long  delayed;  but  no  definite 
term  was  assigned.  It  has  been  said  that  two  distinguish- 
able styles  of  eschatology  characterised  two  types  of  Christian 
thought — the  one  taking  pleasure  in  concrete  images  of  rest 
and  delight,  after  the  manner  of  Jewish  Apocalypses,  the 

^  Bam.  c.  4,  6  /liXas. 

2  Especially  visible  in  tlie  law  codes — Apost.  Const,  etc. 


d8-18oi  BELIEFS   AND   SACRAMENTS  73 

other  dwelling  more  on  emancipation  from  material  condi- 
tions, and  contemplation  of  truth  in  God.  But  while  the 
early  writers  may  gravitate  towards  one  or  other  of  these  two 
poles,  the  important  thing  to  notice  is  that  no  Christian 
writer  repudiates  either.  Those  who  are  most  philosophic, 
and  most  disposed  to  aspire  after  a(f)6apaLa,  maintain  also 
the  resurrection  of  the  body  with  all  that  it  implies ;  and 
those  who  are  attracted  by  the  more  millenarian  expecta- 
tions are  far  from  meaning  that  earthly  delights  can  satisfy 
God's  children.  The  conception  of  the  Jiw^  eirovpavio^  could 
be  approached  on  both  lines.^ 

So  much  has  been  said,  because  very  brief  statements  of 
belief  hardly  represent  sufficiently  the  way  in  which  Chris- 
tian minds  worked  on  matters  of  faith.  But,  of  course,  any 
religion  existing  in  a  cultured  age — especially  one  that  does 
not  stand  in  ancestral  customs  pleasing  to  the  Gods,  but 
presents  itself  as  a  doctrine  of  light — must  be  able  to  say 
roundly  what  it  means.  When  anyone  came  to  be  baptized, 
the  question  came  clearly  up,  What  does  the  neophyte  accept? 
An  understanding  on  the  point  would  seem  to  be  necessary 
just  then ;  and  there  was  every  reason  for  its  being  ex- 
pressed with  care.  Accordingly,  some  profession  of  faith 
in  Christ — or  of  faith  in  the  great  name  into  which  a  man 
was  baptized.  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost — must  naturally 
be  supposed.  So  far  we  may  feel  sure.  If  a  longer  and 
more  fixed  creed  existed,  it  must  be  inferred  by  reasoning 
back  from  later  authorities. 

At  a  later  date  various  forms  of  creed  existed  in  different 
churches — various  yet  very  closely  allied.  They  suggest 
an  early  form,  in  Greek  probably,  both  in  East  and  West, 
confessing  faith  in  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  connecting  with  the  third  head  brief  clauses  of 
Christian  blessings  and  hopes.  When  the  wording  comes 
within  our  reach,  we  find  it  varying  only  slightly  in  the 
Western  churches,  and  the  Koman  church  claimed  for  its 
formula  a  direct  apostolic  origin,  on  which  account  it  would 
allow  no  change  upon  the  wording.  In  the  East  the  original 
*  See  Hennas,  Papias,  Didache,  2  Clem.  Rom. 


74  THE  ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

form,  if  we  are  to  assume  one,  had  been  varied  more  freely 
in  different  churches  to  meet  successive  heresies ;  and  in  the 
East  there  existed  no  tradition  for  an  apostolic  origin  of  any 
creed. 

The  creed  now  known  as  the  Apostles'  is  one  form  of 
the  Western  creed ;  it  was  used  in  Gaul  as  far  back  as  the 
fifth  century.  But  the  old  Eoman  form,  which  must 
have  been  in  use  a.d.  250,  and  for  two  centuries  after,  was 
a  little  shorter.  It  was  in  these  words :  "  I  believe  in  God 
the  Father  Almighty :  and  in  Jesus  Christ  His  Son,  only 
begotten,  our  Lord ;  who  was  begotten  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  Mary  the  Virgin,  crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate,  and 
buried;  the  third  day  arose  from  the  dead,  ascended  into 
heaven,  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  from  whence 
he  Cometh  to  judge  quick  and  dead :  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
holy  Church,  forgiveness  of  sins,  resurrection  of  the  flesh." 
The  phenomena  of  early  creeds,  in  their  likenesses  and  their 
differences,  are  conceived  to  point  back  to  some  form  like 
that  now  quoted,  existing  in  various  Western  churches  in  the 
second  century.  When  a  man  asserted  these  articles  he  took 
Christian  ground.  The  recognition  implied  or  imposed  upon 
him  the  state  of  mind  called  Faith.  These  things,  being  real, 
claimed  his  trust  and  allegiance,  and  he  acknowledged  so 
much  in  his  creed.  ^ 

We  find  also  in  the  churches,  especially  in  churches 
where  minds  were  active,  a  conception  of  the  significance  of 
the  creed,  or  of  the  common  belief,  for  Christian  thinking. 
It  was  the  common  belief  relating  itself  to  the  mental  move- 
ment of  the  time,  and  taking  ground  in  characteristic  asser- 
tions. Christian  revelation,  so  far  as  yet  apprehended,  left 
much  unsettled.  But  it  furnished  thinkers  and  teachers  with 
some  fixed  points  in  reference  to  the  speculation  of  the  time, 
which  could  be  roundly  expressed,  though  men  did  not  use 
one  unvarying  form  in  which  to  embody  them.  This  consent 
of  Christians  as  to  the  meaning  of  their  faith,  or  as  to  the 
common  teaching  received  among  them,  was  referred  to  as 

*  Greek  (nJ/AjSoXoy,  perhaps  "watchword."    Writers  of  the  fourth  century 
speak  of  the  creed  as  never  committed  to  writing,  hut  handed  down  orally. 


98-180]  BELIEFS   AND    SACRAMENTS  76 

the  Kavcov,  or  the  rcgula  veritatis.  It  assumes  prominence 
in  the  beginning  of  the  next  period.^ 

Baptism  was  administered,  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  usually,  but  not  always,  by 
immersion.  A  practice  of  baptizing  in  the  name  of  Christ 
simply,  comes  into  view  from  time  to  time ;  but  it  was  always 
rather  questionable.  Baptism  presupposed  some  Christian 
instruction,  and  was  preceded  by  fasting.^  It  signified  the 
forgiveness  of  past  sins,  and  was  the  visible  point  of  depart- 
ure of  the  new  life  under  Christian  influences  and  with  the 
inspiration  of  Christian  purposes  and  aims.  Hence  it  was 
the  "  seal "  {a(ppayl<;)  which  it  concerned  a  man  to  keep 
inviolate.  When  we  come  to  TertuUian  (De  Corona,  3),  we 
find  various  new  circumstances  attached  to  the  admin- 
istration. These,  or  some  of  them,  may  have  begun  in  the 
present  period,  but  there  is  no  contemporary  evidence. 

The  Agape  or  love-feast  was  a  custom  of  apostolic 
times,  and  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  had  been 
connected  with  it.  The  Agape,  in  one  form  or  other,  con- 
tinued to  be  observed  for  a  long  time ;  but  in  the  second 
century  ^  a  change  took  place  which  disconnected  the  sacra- 
ment from  the  religious  social  meal,  joined  the  former  to  the 
principal  service  of  the  Lord's  day,  and  made  it  the  crowning 
act  of  the  worship  of  the  congregation,  when  that  was  com- 
pletely performed.     Justin  Martyr,  writing  near  the  middle 

^  Neither  the  regula  nor  the  creed  appear  in  the  period  now  before  us, 
but  by  the  end  of  it  there  is  much  reason  to  think  both  were  present. 
Whether  the  rcgula  or  the  creed  comes  first  historically  has  been  made  a 
question.  The  rcgula  is  plainly  spoken  of  in  Christian  writings  long  before 
the  creed  is  referred  to  in  the  same  way.  But  that  can  be  accounted  for ; 
and  the  order  given  above  seems  to  the  writer  to  be  the  more  likely. 

Statements  of  the  Regula,  Iren.  i.  x.  i.  ;  Tert.  de  Proescr.  13,  de  Virg. 
vel.  1,  adv.  Frax.  2  ;  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  vi.;  Orig.  de  Princ.  Proam.  4. 

As  to  the  Creed,  among  foreign  writers,  Hahn,  Bihliothek  der  SymhoUy 
Breslau,  1877 ;  Caspari,  Quellen  z.  Geschichte  des  Tail/symbols,  1869 ;  V. 
Zezschwitz,  System  d.  Kaiechctik,  1875;  Harnack  {Apost.  Symb.)  in  Herzog, 
Eealencycl.^  vol.  i.  Among  English  writers,  Heurtley,  Harmonia  Symbolica. 
Swainson,  article  in  Smith's  Diet,  of  Antiquities,  and  reff.  there.  Sanday  in 
Journal  of  Theolog.  Studies,  vol.  i.  p.  3. 

^  Didache,  vii.  ;  Justin  Mart.  Apol.  i.  61. 

■  Later  than  Ignatius,  Ep.  ad  Smym. 


76  THE  ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

of  the  second  century,  refers  only  to  this  form  of  rite ; 
but  the  date  must  have  varied  in  different  churches,  and 
the  old  connection  with  the  Agape  appears  here  .  and 
there  later.  We  gather  also  from  Ignatius  that  within 
one  church  the  love-feast,  with  its  sacramental  commemora- 
tion of  the  Lord's  death,  might  take  place  among  smaller 
groups  of  worshippers,  as  well  as  in  the  set  meeting  of  the 
Christian  congregation  as  such.^  Ignatius  appears  to  dislike 
this  practice.  At  all  events,  he  is  clear  that  no  meeting  of 
this  kind  should  be  held  without  the  bishop's  authority,  and 
he  presses  the  view  that  in  one  church  there  should  be 
united  observance,  with  all  the  constitutive  elements  of  the 
organised  church  present. 

Besides  the  observance  on  the  Lord's  day,  the  eucharist 
was  celebrated  after  the  baptism  of  a  new  convert,  and  no 
doubt  at  other  times.  The  celebrant  is  referred  to  by 
Justin  as  the  "  presiding  person,"  and  there  is  nothing  as  yet 
to  indicate  that  the  validity  of  the  ordinance  was  held  to 
depend  on  "  orders."  At  the  same  time,  alike  the  cele- 
bration in  separate  groups,  and  by  persons  not  specially 
authorised,  could  easily  lend  itself  to  schisms,  and  re- 
striction in  both  respects  was  certain  to  be  ultimately 
agreed  upon.  In  churches  whose  practice  is  represented 
by  the  Didache,  it  was  deemed  desirable  to  have  for  the 
eucharist  short  fixed  forms  of  prayer.  The  forms  given 
are  remarkable  chiefly  for  the  absence  of  clear  reference 
to  the  suffering  and  death  of  Christ,  to  forgiveness  or 
reconciliation.  The  leading  thoughts  are  the  unity  of 
the  Church,  its  eventual  gathering  to  Christ,  the  spiritual 
food  and  drink  imparted  to  believers,  the  light  and  im- 
mortality to  which  Christians  are  called,  and  the  near 
coming  of  the  Lord.  The  Didache  recognises  the  right  of 
the  prophet  to  pray  in  such  terms  as  he  thinks  fit,  and 
Justin  Martyr  says  the  presiding  person  prays  according 
to  his  ability.  It  is  probable  that  the  prayer  in  the 
earlier  part  of  the  Lord's  day  service  took  the  form  chiefly 
of  supplication,  and  in  the  eucharistic  part  of  thanks- 
*  Ignat.  Pliilad.  4,  E^yh.  20. 


98-180]  BELIEFS   AND   SACRAMENTS  t^ 

giving.  As  early  as  Ignatius  and  the  Didache  the  term 
eifx^apia-TLa  occurs  in  application  to  the  whole  ministration 
of  the  sacrament,  and  even  to  the  elements. 

That  in  partaking  of  the  consecrated  elements  the 
participation  of  the  worshippers  in  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  is  solemnly  affirmed,  both  on  their  part  and  on 
God's,  may  be  said  to  be  the  common  teaching ;  but  what 
the  nature  of  this  participation  is,  according  to  Ignatius 
and  Justin,  and  what  the  relation  of  the  elements  to  that 
which  they  represent,  is  a  question  which  will  be  differently 
answered,  just  as  the  statements  on  these  subjects  in  the  New 
Testament  are  differently  understood  in  different  schools. 

This  service  has  to  be  considered  also  from  another  point 
of  view.  From  the  earliest  period  probably  it  was  customary 
for  the  people  to  bring  gifts  of  various  kinds  of  food, 
including  especially  bread  and  wine.  These  were  needed  for 
the  Agape,  and  any  surplus  was  available  for  Christians 
whose  wants  had  to  be  provided  for.  From  this  supply  the 
portions  were  taken  which,  after  the  eucharistic  prayers, 
were  employed  in  the  celebration  of  the  sacrament. 

These  contributions  in  kind  were  the  Bwpa,  which  the 
office-bearers  presented,  as  gifts  brought  for  the  service  of 
God  and  of  His  Church.  And  it  was  not  unnatural  that 
the  technical  term  for  temple  offerings  (irpoarcpepeLv  ^) 
should  be  applied  to  them,  the  rather  that  the  term 
etymologically  means  simply  to  bring  forward  or  present. 
This  fell  in  also  with  the  Christian  feeling  that  the 
worshippers,  as  God's  redeemed,  had  it  for  their  duty  and 
privilege  to  offer  themselves  to  God — all  they  were,  and 
all  they  had — and  to  do  so  then,  especially,  when  admitted 
to  the  highest  expression  of  fellow^ship  with  the  Son  and 
with  the  Father ;  so  that  the  gift  they  brought  with  them 
was  only  a  token  of  the  surrender  of  all.     In  particular, 

*  1  Clem.  Rom.  i.  44,  TrpoaepeyKdi'Tas  rk  8wpa.  But  it  is  not  quite  certain 
that  these  material  contributions  were  as  yet  spoken  of  as  dwpa,  and  the 
phrase  may  refer  to  the  prayers  and  thanks  of  the  Christians,  of  which  the 
presbyters  were  the  mouthjnece.  These  also  were  eminently  offerings. 
Heb.  xiii.  15. 


78  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

this  feeling  of  grateful  obligation  necessarily  animated 
the  eucharistic  prayer.  Then,  any  sentiment  of  thankful 
offering  to  God  which  expressed  itself  in  the  Bcopa  in 
general,  must  especially  have  followed  that  portion  of  them 
which,  in  the  service,  was  as  it  were  specially  accepted 
by  the  Lord,  and  was  honoured  to  become  the  expression 
of  what  Christ,  on  His  part,  gave  and  gives,  in  virtue  of 
His  sacrifice  of  Himself.  In  the  portion  so  employed, 
what  was  brought  by  the  Christian  people  to  the  Lord 
seemed  to  meet  that  which  the  Lord  brought  and  com- 
municated to  them.  Up  to  this  point  nothing  hindered 
the  thought  of  "  offering "  or  presentation  as  embodying 
one  aspect  of  the  transaction.  If  that  offering  in  itself 
was  small,  it  was  fashioned  to  great  honour  in  the  use 
for  which  the  Lord  accepted  and  employed  it,  and  it  was 
the  token  of  the  greater  offering  of  loving  hearts  and  lives. 
Such  considerations  make  it  intelligible  that  as  early  as 
Justin  we  find  the  whole  service  spoken  of  as  the  7rpocr(f>opd. 
It  was  the  Christian  offering  as  contrasted  with  Gentile 
sacrifices.  But  this  use  of  language  rather  obscured  the 
main  meaning  of  the  sacrament ;  and  it  lent  itself,  eventu- 
ally, to  an  impression  that  the  thought  of  offering  might 
be  applicable  indiscriminately  to  the  whole  religious  trans- 
action, and  especially  to  the  elements  after  consecration ; 
so  that  Christ  sacrificed  for  us  is  somehow  the  Trpoa-cfiopd 
which  Christian  men  offer  in  the  eucharist.  Nothing 
in  our  period  suggests  that  this  conception  (which  sup- 
poses us  to  present  to  our  Lord  that  which  He,  in  fact, 
is  presenting  or  representing  to  us)  had  taken  being;  but 
the  form  of  language  had  already  been  provided  out 
of  which  it  was  to  grow.  The  eucharistic  irpoa-cpopd 
appears  as  yet  in  Justin  Martyr  only.^  In  this  con- 
nection it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  thought  of  a 
special  priesthood,  alone  qualified  to  make  the  offering,  is 
also  unknown.  Justin,  in  connection  with  the  eucharist, 
speaks  of    the   whole    Christian  congregation  as  the  high- 

1  Ignatius  speaks  thrice  of  the  altar — Philad.  4,  Eph.  5,    Trail.  7.     But 
this  is  an  ideal  altar,  in  allusion  to  the  Levitical  type.     See  Lightfoot. 


BELIEFS   AND    SACRAMENTS  79 

priestly  race  {Dial.  116,  117)  who  offer  true  and  pure 
sacrifices;  and  he  goes  on  to  identify  these  sacrifices  as 
the  Christian  prayers  and  thanksgivings,  and  the  Christian 
commemoration  "  in  food  dry  and  moist,  in  which  the  suffer- 
ing of  our  Lord  is  remembered." 

Generally,  one  sees  the  working  of  a  set  purpose  to  find 
a  Christian  sense  for  Old  Testament  sayings,  and  therefore 
to  find  aspects  of  Christian  ordinances  to  which  Levitical 
language  can  be  applied.  Such  a  tendency  must  be 
expected  to  exert  itself,  with  special  force,  in  connection 
with  symbolical  ordinances  like  the  eucharist. 

A  lively  sense  of  a  wonderful  union  to  Christ,  specially 
brought  home  to  us  in  the  eucharist,  dominates  all  the 
language  used ;  and  whatever  benefits  arise  to  men  through 
union  to  Christ,  might  be  suggested  in  this  connection. 
Specifically,  some  writers  suggest  the  idea  that  the 
sacrament  received  operates  on  our  bodies  as  an  influence 
disposing  them  to  resurrection  and  immortal  life.^  But  how 
far  this  is  literally  intended,  it  is  hard  to  say ;  for,  in  any 
view,  resurrection  and  eternal  life  are  ours  in  union  with 
Christ,  and  that  living  union  is  represented  in  the  eucharist. 

Sin  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins  were  topics  of  which 
much  had  to  be  said ;  yet  the  doctrine  of  them  was  en- 
tangled in  views  and  impressions  arising  from  the  Church's 
discipline.  Baptism  seals  to  men  the  forgiveness  of  sins.^ 
No  doubt  actual  forgiveness  could  not  be  assumed  without 
reference  to  the  state  of  mind  of  the  candidate  for  baptism ; 
for  in  him  faith  and  repentance  are  required,  and  they 
might  not  be  really  present.  Still  forgiveness  of  all  past 
sins  is  a  blessing  held  out  to  faith  in  baptism.  But  how  as 
to  sins  after  baptism  ? 

Pirst,  there  are    some    sins  which    are   also  scandals. 

»  Ignat.  E2ih.  20. 

*  This  is  equivalent,  according  to  Tertullian,  to  forgiveness  at  conversion, 
if  baptism,  though  intended,  does  not  immediately  take  place — if,  for  instance, 
it  is  reverentially  delayed,  "Fides  integra  secura  est  de  salute"  (Tert.  de 
Bapt.  18)  ;  but  baptism  is  the  sacramental  donation  of  forgiveness  ;  therefore 
it  is  the  visible  epoch  of  forgiveness  for  Church  purposes,  and  the  sacramental 
seal  of  it  to  the  believer  himselt 


80  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

When  these  become  known  they  interrupt  Christian 
fellowship,  and  the  Church  separates  the  sinner,  until 
satisfied  of  his  restoration  to  a  better  mind.  Now  the 
habit  of  early  writers  is  to  speak  of  the  loss  of  the 
Church's  peace  and  the  loss  of  God's,  also  of  the  (legiti- 
mate) possession  of  the  Church's  peace  and  the  possession 
of  God's,  as  if  the  one  interpreted  the  other.  Hence,  in 
regard  to  such  sins  (especially  impurity,  idolatry,  and 
murder),  the  question  about  "  forgiveness "  is  the  question 
about  the  Church's  right  to  restore.  Many  maintained 
that  for  these  great  sins  there  is  no  forgiveness  after  that 
which  is  sealed  in  baptism.  Others  (whose  view  prevailed 
more  widely  as  time  went  on)  allowed  one  more  forgiveness 
upon  penitence,  but  none  after  that.  Lastly,  there  were  those 
(but  they  are  hardly  visible  till  the  third  century, — yet 
the  view  may  have  been  acted  on  before)  who  allowed  more 
than  one  restoration.  Those  who  restricted  the  Church's 
right  to  restore  meant  that,  in  such  cases,  the  forgiveness  of 
the  sinner  could  not  be  presumed  or  assured.  But  they 
did  not  mean  to  shut  out  all  hope.  If  the  sinner  continued 
penitent  till  he  died,  he  might,  or  would,  find  forgiveness  in 
the  next  world ;  but  not  in  this  one. 

On  the  other  hand,  sins  less  aggravated  were  conceived 
to  find  forgiveness  through  current  religious  exercises  with 
almsgiving;  they  required  no  more  special  provision  for 
taking  them  away.  But  this  was  in  its  own  nature  an 
insufficient  and  unsatisfactory  distinction.  Which  are  the 
really  great  sins  ?  Not  necessarily  those  which  bulk  largest 
in  human  eyes.  This  difficulty  was  felt.  For  while  some- 
times the  plenitude  of  grace  was  regarded  as  easily  cleans- 
ing the  occasional  stains  of  a  redeemed  people,^  at  other 
times  the  Christian  consciousness  of  sins  became  very  press- 
ing.2  The  special  lessons  of  Hermas  concerning  his  sins 
begin  with  the  consciousness  of  a  passing  thought  of  evil ; 

^  1  Clem.  Rom.  ii.  3:  "With  godly  confidence  you  stretched  forth  your 
hands  to  God  Almighty,  beseeching  Him  to  be  merciful  to  you,  if  ye  had  been 
guilty  of  any  involuntary  transgression." 

2  2  Clem.  Rom.  xiii.  3,  xviii.  2. 


98-180]  BELIEFS   AND   SACRAMENTS  81 

then  his  lack  of  good  government  in  his  family,  and  a  habit 
of  lying  begin  to  come  home  to  him.  His  whole  life 
becomes  so  defective  in  his  eyes,  that  the  announcement 
of  one  more  opportunity  of  repentance  before  the  Lord 
comes,  consoles  him  greatly.  That  is,  he  feels  that  the 
lesser  sins  in  his  case  require  as  express  relief  as  the 
greater  might.  This  special  grant  of  one  repentance  after 
baptism  is  not  regarded  by  Hermas  as  a  standing  ordinance 
in  the  Church.  It  is  allowed  for  once  only,  that  men  may 
be  encouraged  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  Lord's  return.^ 

Amid  all  that  created  exultation  and  called  forth  effort 
among  Christians,  the  consciousness  of  sin,  and  a  serious 
estimate  of  its  ill-desert,  could  not  but  have  a  large  place. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  impression  of  the  divine  benignity 
and  compassion  towards  the  penitent  was  never  lacking. 
But  clear  thoughts  of  the  principles  on  which  the  Lord 
deals  with  men  about  sins,  especially  after  baptism,  never 
were  attained.  Out  of  this  perplexity  arose,  after  a  long 
time,  the  Romish  sacrament  of  penance. 

In  some  churches  there  had  been  the  practice,  at  an 
early  period,  of  confessing  openly  whatever  each  member 
felt  to  have  been  a  transgression  on  his  part,  with  the 
view  of  clearing  his  conscience  before  common  prayer  and 
communion.^  This  would  apply  specially  to  any  wrong 
done  to  a  brother,  but  the  rule  may  have  applied  to 
transgressions  generally.  No  doubt  this  turned  out  to  be 
inexpedient.  But  public  penitence  continued  to  be  exacted 
in  connection  with  grave  or  scandalous  sins.  We  may  believe 
the  leading  or  ruling  persons  in  congregations  would  be 
consulted,  when  a  conscience-stricken  believer  was  in  doubt 
as  to  whether  his  own  particular  offence  required  to  be 
dealt  with  in  that  way. 

The  yearly  commemoration  of  the  Lord's  death  and 
resurrection  at  Easter  reveals  itself,  about  the  middle  of 
the  second  century,  by  a  debate  which  then  arose.  From 
a  period  which  cannot  be  assigned,  the  custom  had 
prevailed  of  distinguishing  the  Wednesday  and  Friday  of 

^  Hermas,  Mand.  iii.  and  iv.  3,  4.  2  DidacTte^  iv.  14. 

6 


82  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.D. 

each  week  by  some  religious  observances  —  of  course,  in 
addition  to  the  first  day  of  the  week,  on  which  the  chief 
weight  was  laid.  Annually,  when  the  feast  of  the 
Passover  came  round,  and  when  the  observances  connected 
with  it  became  prominent  in  every  Jewish  community, 
the  Christian  churches  could  not  but  feel  that  the 
Christian  worship  of  that  week  was  coloured  by  the 
remembrance  of  the  great  events  associated  with  our 
Lord's  last  Passover.  This  was  the  more  certain  because 
in  the  earliest  days  almost  every  church  included  members 
who  were  Jews,  and  strongly  imbued  with  Jewish  habits 
and  associations.  In  the  earliest  period,  indeed,  many 
continued  to  observe  the  Jewish  feasts.  One  way  in 
which  this  situation  worked  was,  that  whatever  the  day 
of  the  week  might  be  on  which  the  Passover  fell,  the 
Friday  (being  the  week-day  of  the  Lord's  death)  took  on 
the  character  of  commemorating  the  crucifixion,  and  so, 
naturally,  the  next  Sunday  became  the  commemoration 
of  the  resurrection.  This  form  of  observance  must  have 
been  very  general ;  we  find  it  prevailing  in  Syria,  Egypt, 
and  the  West.  But  in  Asia  Minor  they  followed  a  practice 
according  to  which  the  Passover  day  in  each  year,  what- 
ever day  of  the  week  it  might  be,  was  devoted  to 
commemorate  the  death,  and  probably  in  the  evening  the 
period  of  mourning  ended,  and  the  celebration  of  the 
eucharist  introduced  the  period  of  rejoicing.  This  way  was 
not  less  natural  than  the  other,  and  might  even  claim, 
from  one  point  of  view,  to  be  more  exact.  But  as  the 
Passover  day  was  naturally  accepted  annually  as  fixed  by 
the  Jews,  this  had  the  effect  of  bringing  the  Christian 
celebration  into  constant  coincidence  with  the  Jewish  one ; 
while,  on  the  former  arrangement,  such  coincidence  only 
happened  occasionally.  Charity  might  have  regarded  the 
Asiatic  practice  as  embodying  a  constant  protest  against 
Judaism;  but  zeal  suggested  that  it  might  be  a  form  of 
Judaising.  ^    / 

At  all  events,  after  a  time  offence  began  to  ^^ taken 
at  the  Asiatic  peculiarity  in  this   respect.      Hence,  \when 


9&-180]  BELIEFS   AND   SACEAMKNTS  83 

Anicetus  (a.d.  154-166)  was  at  the  head  of  the  church  of 
Eome,  Polycarp  of  Smyrna,  then  a  very  old  man,  made  a 
journey  to  Eome,  the  chief  object  of  which  was  to  arrange 
the  difference.  The  Asiatics  were  in  a  minority ;  but  theirs 
was  at  that  time  a  very  vigorous  ecclesiastical  life ;  and 
besides,  they  traced  their  practice  back  to  the  Apostle  John 
and  other  great  authorities.  They  therefore  did  not  feel 
they  could  give  way ;  nor  did  the  Eomans  on  their  side. 
At  that  time  the  two  parties  agreed  to  bear  with  one 
another,  and  Anicetus,  in  token  of  Christian  friendship, 
made  Polycarp  celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper  in  his  church. 
Later,  as  we  shall  see,  in  the  time  of  Victor  (bishop  of  Eome, 
AD.  189-198),  the  controversy  revived  with  great  bitterness. , , 


^V> 


'^ 


CHAPTER    V 

Apologists 

J.  C.  T.  Otto,  Corpus  Apologeta/mm  Ch/ristiarwruMf  2nd  ed.  6  vols.,  JensB, 
1876,  is  a  useful  collection. 

The  Apologists  fill,  relatively,  a  large  place  in  the  Christian 
literature  of  the  second  century.  They  are  by  no  means 
confined  to  that  century ;  but  it  may  be  best  to  deal  with 
them  now.  Aristides,  Justin  Martyr,  Tatian,  Athenagoras, 
Theophilus,  Minucius  Felix  (probably),  come  within  our 
period.  Tertullian,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Hermias,  Origen, 
Arnobius,  Lactantius,  and  others  fall  later.^ 

Their  task  was  to  represent  Christianity,  and  defend  it 
in  relation  to  the  alien  and  adverse  forces  which  have  been 
described.  Their  main  concern,  speaking  generally,  is  with 
the  Gentile  world ;  but  Justin  Martyr  has  left  an  elaborate 
exposition  of  the  case  of  Christianity  versus  Judaism ;  and 
Apologists  often  refer  to  Judaism  as  one  of  the  alternatives 
naturally  present  to  the  minds  of  men  at  that  time.  As 
regards  the  Gentile  world,  the  Apologists,  speaking  generally, 
have  an  eye  to  the  action  of  the  government;  they  plead 
for  toleration.  But  at  the  same  time  they  press  the  claims 
of  Christianity  on  the  classes  that  are  capable  of  being 
influenced  by  writing.  The  Odavius  of  Minucius  Felix 
is  not  on  the  face  of  it  directed  at  all  to  the  government 
or  to  the  tribunals.  It  is  rather  a  literary  treatment  of  a 
current  question.  The  same  remark  applies  to  the  Epistle 
to  Diognetus. 

The  Apologists  put  Christianity  forward  as  the  true  and 

*  The  date  of  the  ExnstU  to  Diogrietus  is  contested. 


A.D.  98-180]  APOLOGISTS  86 

the  eternal  religion.  From  first  to  last  it  has  claimed  the 
loyalty  of  men  ;  but  as  announced  by  Christ,  it  is  set  forth, 
at  last,  adequately,  so  that  in  its  purity  and  its  certainty  it 
may  do  its  work  among  men.  They  assume  the  classes  whom 
they  address  to  possess  the  intellectual  training  of  the  age, 
referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter,  and  to  be  furnished  with 
the  conceptions  and  schemes  of  thought  which  that  training 
supplied.  God, — Virtue, — a  possible  or  probable  survival  of 
spiritual  natures  after  death, — these  were  themes  which  the 
Platonic  and  the  Stoic  schools  (often,  by  this  time,  fusing 
themselves  together)  had  kept  alive  in  the  minds  of  men. 
Also  the  thought  of  a  divine  nature  which  mediates  between 
the  Highest  God  and  the  concrete  world  was  extensively 
entertained. 

What  then  is  the  Christianity  which  the  Apologists 
propound  to  their  contemporaries  ?  Christianity,  accord- 
ing to  the  Apologists,  sets  forth  God  as  the  only  God, 
unapproached  in  nature  and  dominion,  a  pure  spirit.  He 
is  represented  much  on  the  lines  of  those  older  schools 
which  dwell  on  His  essential  remoteness  from  the  material 
and  the  concrete.  He  is  eternal  and  immutable,  He  is 
also  righteous  and  good.  He  is  sole  Creator  of  the  world, 
both  physical  and  moral,  and  is  the  Lord  of  Providence. 
The  world  therefore  is,  essentially  and  in  the  main,  beautiful 
and  good  (though  graduated  as  to  both  qualities,  and  capable 
of  evil),  and  it  has  been  planned  with  a  view  to  man, 
who  unites  the  two  elements  of  matter  and  spirit.  It  is 
therefore  the  same  God  with  whom  we  have  to  do,  alike 
in  the  moral  region  and  in  the  physical;  and  He  is  the 
God  who  deals  with  us  in  salvation. 

The  ancient  Church  had  a  very  lively  sense  of  the 
importance  of  certainty  as  to  all  this.  They  held  fast  the 
double  thought — on  the  one  hand,  that  God  is  the  principle 
and  source  of  the  world;  on  the  other  hand,  that  God,  as 
immortal  and  eternal,  stands  in  vivid  contrast  to  the  world 
as  corruptible  and  transient.  In  the  former  it  is  involved 
that  moral  good  presides,  and  in  the  end  wiU  be  supreme. 
The  same  thought  lent  itself  to  the  conception  of  creation 


86  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

as  furnishing  parables  of  redemption.  On  both  grounds, 
commentaries  on  Gen.  i.  came  to  occupy  a  large  place  in 
Christian  literature. 

The  revelation  of  this  God,  both  in  creation  and  to  the 
creatures,  is  carried  on  by  the  Logos  (also  the  Son)  of  God, 
the  manifest  and  manifesting  reason.  He  comes  forth  from 
the  eternal  Father;  yet  so  that  the  Father  loses  nothing 
by  the  process. 

Man,  in  particular,  is  so  related  to  God  that  Truth  is  a 
common  element  for  God  and  man.  The  highest  truth, 
indeed,  requires  to  be  revealed,  but  man  is  apt  for  such 
revelation.  There  is,  first  of  all,  a  revelation  in  the  nature 
of  man,  a  "  seed  of  the  Word "  more  or  less  present  to  all 
men.  Hence  it  is,  at  least  ideally,  possible  for  men,  even 
now  and  without  further  revelation,  to  attain  sufficient 
knowledge  of  God ;  but  it  is  difficult.  There  are,  however, 
additional  ministries  of  the  Logos,  which,  in  various  degrees, 
have  tended  to  the  same  end.  All  these  are  crowned  and 
completed  in  Christianity. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Logos  could  be  connected,  of  course, 
with  the  vov^  of  Plato  and  the  Xoyoi  of  the  Stoics,  as  well 
as  with  the  X0709  of  Philo,  and  it  was  connected  on  the 
Christian  side  with  the  person  of  Christ.  In  addition,  the 
Apologists  recognise  as  distinct  the  Holy  Spirit  (sometimes 
identified  with  aocjita);  but  this  is  an  element  suggested 
rather  by  their  Christian  faith  than  by  their  intellectual 
scheme. 

Man  has  been  endowed  with  reason  and  free-will ;  and 
he  is  destined  to  a  life  transcending  earth  and  time.  This 
blessed  life  is  to  be  attained  by  a  course  of  holy  walking 
in  the  likeness  of  God.  Virtue  is  conceived  on  the 
principle  of  surmounting  desires  and  impulses  pertaining 
to  the  body,  and  living  spiritually.  The  natural  morality 
is,  to  surpass  nature  and  so  find  oneself  related  to  God  and 
man  in  a  pure  and  lofty  manner.  By  equanimity,  indiffer- 
ence to  want,  purity,  goodness,  always  under  the  influence 
of  the  Logos,  man  even  here  rises  above  the  transient,  and 
finds  his  way  to  the  other  world  with  its  vision   of  God. 


98-180]  APOLOGISTS  87 

This,  rather  than  the  great  thought  of  love,  is  the 
watchword  of  the  Apologists :  though  with  a  conscious- 
ness that  a  gentle,  helpful,  unselfish  temper  is  an  element 
in  it.  Along  with  this  spiritual  hope  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead  was  firmly  asserted ;  also  the  judgment  and  two- 
fold retribution.  Life  lived  under  the  influence  of  the 
Logos  leads  on  to  ac^dapaia — a  state  free  from  darkness 
and  decay.  As  the  peculiar  manner  of  God's  own  existence 
is  emphatically  marked  out  by  this  same  word,  so  the 
destiny  for  man  which  it  indicates,  suggests  for  him 
also  a  divine  manner  of  existence.  This  thought  is  dis- 
tinctly present  as  a  matter  of  fact,  and  it  continues  to 
recur  far  down  the  Greek  Christian  literature.  Man  saved 
is  in  a  manner  deified.  This  connects  again  with  the 
Incarnation  as  the  fitting  means  towards  such  a  result. 

This  view  of  the  true  good  is  so  congenital  to 
man,  that  the  response  to  it  was  due  on  the  part  of  men 
even  from  the  beginning.  Christian  religion  in  this  view 
has  claimed  men  all  along.  But  in  our  present  condition 
the  true  knowledge  and  the  right  impressions  have  been 
hindered.  Darkness  and  uncertainty  beset  men,  and  they 
are  enslaved  in  lusts  and  in  misleading  beliefs.  How  has 
this  come  about  ?  If  there  is  in  every  man  a  seed  of  the 
eternal  reason,  if  also  the  energy  of  the  Logos  has  been, 
from  time  to  time,  put  forth  exceptionally  in  some  men 
who  have  been  examples  and  instructors  to  their  fellows, 
why  has  truth  so  far  failed  to  do  its  work  ?  The  main 
practical  answer  which  the  Apologists  have  to  give  is  to 
refer  to  the  influence  of  daemons,  who  have  in  some  way 
come  into  great  power  in  this  lower  world,  and  whom  men 
have  allowed  to  establish  a  baneful  influence  among  them. 

Christian  religion,  then,  is  the  truth  concerning  all 
these  matters  operating  duly  on  men.  In  the  case  of 
an  individual  here  and  there,  it  might  conceivably  have 
been  attained  by  the  light  of  nature ;  but  it  has  from  the 
beginning  been  authoritatively  revealed  by  the  prophets, 
and  now  at  last  conclusively  in  the  incarnation  and  life 
of  Christ.     Thoughtful  men  among  the  Greeks  attained  to 


88  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

a  large  measure  of  the  truth ;  but  for  the  most  part  their 
attainment  was  partial,  and  largely  beset  with  uncertainty. 
Now,  in  the  incarnation  and  in  the  ministry  of  the  Word 
Himself,  the  teaching  of  the  prophets  and  the  sages  has  been 
confirmed  and  completed.  Now,  with  decisive  clearness 
and  authority,  it  claims  our  obedience. 

It  may  be  asked  "in  what  way  the  Apologists  make 
good  their  claim,  that  in  connection  with  Christ's  coming 
this  religion  has  now  received  its  conclusive  certification. 
Often  they  are  content  merely  to  state  the  case,  as  if  the 
mere  statement  spoke  for  itself.  Sometimes  (so  Justin 
Martyr)  they  dwell  on  the  thought  that  by  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Logos  in  Christ  a  fuller  participation  of  Him 
has  become  possible  for  men.  But  in  general  they  rather 
remarkably  abstain  from  maintaining  that  something  new 
has  been  revealed  by  Christ.  For  their  point  rather  is, 
that  all  essentials  have  been  within  our  reach  all  along. 
On  other  terms  they  might  have  had  to  encounter  a  strong 
prejudice ;  for  the  thinkers  of  the  day  were  not  likely  to 
admit  that  the  eternal  religion,  the  religion  which  is  from 
the  beginning  true  for  man,  should  come  to  light  per  saltum, 
at  a  later  epoch.  The  Apologists  prefer  to  say  that  the 
whole  prophetic  dispensation  was  rich  in  predictions ;  and 
in  the  coming  of  Christ,  and  the  results  of  it,  those  pre- 
dictions have  been  verified.  This  directly  proved  divine 
insight  and  divine  providence.  When  the  Apologists 
survey  the  recorded  history  of  Christ,  their  first  thought 
about  it,  and  their  constant  comment  on  it,  is  that  in  it 
prophecy  has  remarkably  been  fulfilled.  Christ,  therefore, 
appears  in  a  radiance  of  fulfilled  prediction  which  assures 
us  who  He  is. 

The  Apologetic  conception  of  the  true  religion  fell  in 
remarkably  with  the  indications  of  the  best  Greek  schools. 
The  exceptions  to  this  are  the  doctrine  of  the  incarnation 
and  the  definite  Christian  eschatology,  both  of  which  the 
Apologists  faithfully  assert.  But  the  unity  of  God, — His 
ineffable  contrast  to  the  material  world, —  the  supreme 
worth  of   virtue, —  even  the  general   conception  of   what 


88-180]  APOLOGISTS  89 

virtue  is, — immortality  as  an  assertion  or  as  an  aspiration, 
— and  the  general  doctrine  of  a  Logos, — were  all  reflected 
in  the  common  thinking.  Besides,  many  Gentile  minds 
confessed,  or  did  not  disclaim,  a  craving  for  something 
like  religious  assurance, — for  hope  beyond  the  grave, — for 
conscious  and  personal  relations  to  the  immortal  and  the 
eternal.  The  Apologists  were  well  aware  of  this  approxi- 
mation, and  for  some  purposes  they  emphasised  it.  They 
took  up  a  double  attitude  towards  Greek  thought.  They 
accepted  the  evidence  which  Greek  thought  supplied,  that 
the  conception  of  religion  presented  in  the  Christian  argu- 
ment is  indeed  the  true,  the  congenital  religion  for  men ;  it 
can  approve  itself  to  man's  better  reason.  The  "seed  of 
the  Word "  in  every  man  (aided  sometimes  by  hints  from 
Jewish  prophecy  and  by  special  influences)  can  bring  men 
so  far.  On  the  other  hand,  they  feel  entitled  to  treat 
Gentile  philosophy  with  disdain,  because — (1)  it  deferred 
to  the  national  idolatries  and  entered  into  compromises 
with  them ;  (2)  it  proved  to  be  fluctuating  and  divided ; 
(3)  it  lacked  certainty ;  it  could  not  inspire  confidence  or 
sustain  hope.  This  double  attitude  in  different  degrees 
characterises  all  the  Christian  representatives  except,  per- 
haps, Arnobius,  whose  attitude  is  that  of  contempt  only, 
Tertullian,  too,  professes  to  disdain  the  schools ;  and  he  lays 
stress  only  on  the  views  which  common  sense  suggests  to 
the  ordinary  unsophisticated  man.^  But  what  he  so  accepts 
is  materially  the  same  thing  which  other  Apologists  com- 
mend as  the  reasoned  conclusions  of  the  better  philosophers. 
The  Apologists,  then,  hardly  ask  the  Gentile  mind  to 
change  much  in  its  better  thoughts  about  God  and  virtue ; 
but  they  offer  to  it  the  new  certainty  and  the  new 
encouragement  which  Christianity  imparts.  For  the  sake 
of  these,  Greece  might  well  accept  the  articles  which 
embody  direct  divine  interposition  in  the  incarnation  and 
the  eschatolop^y.  Christianity  is  a  religion  in  which  the 
life  of  well-doing  becomes  an  assured  career.  That  which 
has  heretofore  been  an  ideal,  no  doubt  remarkably  put  in 

^  Testimonium  Animce  naturaliter  Christiance, 


90  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

practice  by  some  select  souls,  was  now  to  come  home, 
convincingly  and  fruitfully,  to  men  in  general,  to  common 
men  and  maidens,  not  less  than  to  the  wise.  The  goal  seems 
to  be  much  the  same  as  before;  nay,  the  force  which 
is  to  carry  men  to  the  goal  is  substantially  the  same — the 
influence  of  Truth  upon  the  mind.  But  now,  Truth  is 
cleared  of  doubt ;  now  it  can  operate  in  a  victorious 
manner;  and  it  is  reinforced  by  Hope. 

It  has  been  felt  and  said  that  in  taking  this  ground 
the  Apologists  reveal  a  scanty  appreciation  of  their  own 
religion,  and  are  silent  as  to  some  of  its  greatest  promises 
and  prerogatives.  They  do  not  dwell  on  the  significance 
of  forgiveness;  they  do  not  insist  on  the  need,  or  the  fact, 
of  a  new  beginning  by  a  new  birth.  They  do  not  seem 
to  feel  (here,  however,  Justin  Martyr  and  the  writer  to 
Diognetus  must  be  excepted)  that  the  incarnation  and 
the  experience  of  our  Lord  embody  a  redemptive  energy, 
unless  we  reckon  to  this  the  assumption  that  those  who 
now  believe  are  enabled  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  throw  off 
the  power  of  the  daemons.  Our  Lord's  appearance  (this 
seems  to  be  their  leading  thought)  became  the  great  fulfil- 
ment of  prophecy,  and  at  the  same  time  it  possessed 
men's  minds  with  a  quite  new  sense  of  the  reality  of  that 
Logos  influence  which  was  more  secretly  dispensed  before. 
Harnack,  therefore,  has  remarked  that  the  Apologists  made 
a  very  bold  stroke  in  asserting  identity  of  contents  as 
between  Christianity  and  the  better  forms  of  pre-existing 
theory,  for  thus  they  claimed  for  their  cause  the  suffrage  of 
the  world  itself ;  but  they  did  so  at  the  cost  of  neutralising 
the  significance  of  all  the  specific  features  of  the  religion 
they  defended. 

In  order  to  do  justice  to  the  Apologists,  it  must  be 
considered  that  their  business  was  to  address  the  cultured 
mind  of  their  time.  In  doing  so  they  were  bound  to  put 
forward  aspects  of  the  case  to  which  they  could  hope  that 
mind  would  respond.  Their  business  was,  or  seemed  to  be, 
to  insist  on  the  affinities  between  Christianity  and  Greek 
thought,  to  suggest  the  help  which  the  Greek  mind  might 


98-180]  APOLOGISTS  91 

receive  from  Christian  teaching,  but  not  to  insist  on  what 
might  seem  alien  or  opposed.  Their  personal  Christianity, 
therefore,  might  be  of  a  richer  strain  than  their  Apologies 
reveal. 

Another  thing  must  be  said.  The  significance  of  Christ 
in  connection  with  the  scheme  of  truth  and  duty  may  be 
conceived  barely  by  these  writers.  It  may  be  often 
little  more  than  this,  that  in  His  person  the  immediate 
imprimatur  of  the  Logos  Himself  was  stamped  on  the  moral 
contents  of  His  religion.  But  the  feeling  of  the  writing 
means  more.  The  writers  are  filled  with  the  sense  of  a  new 
beginning  set  for  men,  and  for  each  man,  in  Christ's  religion. 
Just  as  in  the  final  judgment,  so  resolutely  asserted  by  them 
all,  the  justice  is  signalised  which  upholds  moral  distinctions, 
and  gives  to  the  world  a  moral  constitution  ;  so,  in  the  incar- 
nation, the  grace  which  cares  for  men,  and  knows  no  limits  to 
its  condescension  for  their  sake,  the  Love  which  was  set 
on  saving,  was  felt,  though  hardly  at  all  explained.  It 
was  something  there  which  made  all  new,  and  rendered  it 
so  hopeful,  obligatory,  and  inspiring,  to  forsake  all  and 
follow  Christ. 

And  this,  too,  it  is  which,  as  it  were  unconsciously, 
baptizes  their  moral  code.  They  do  not  themselves  know 
why  or  how  their  morality  differs  from  the  pagan  codes, — 
at  least  they  most  imperfectly  tell  us ;  but  when  morality 
comes  into  a  world  of  love,  and  takes  relation  to  the  grace 
of  Him  who  took  flesh  and  died  for  us,  it  is  unawares 
transformed,  inspired,  and  glorified.  Still,  the  impression 
gathered  from  the  writings  is  that  the  early  Apologists 
disclose,  substantially,  all  that  had  attained,  in  their  minds, 
to  the  condition  of  a  reasoned  case.  What  further  impres- 
sions they  had  of  something  rich  and  strong  in  Christianity 
were  largely  inarticulate.  Their  minds  were  on  the  whole 
filled  and  held  by  the  conception,  already  explained,  of 
Christianity  as  related  to  current  thought.  With  various 
proportionings  of  things  they  agree  with  one  another  in  the 
main.  One  must  say,  therefore,  that  in  these  representative 
men  the  Christian  mind  took  up  a  conception  of  Chris- 


92  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.D. 

tianity  which  impoverished  the  representation  of  it.  The 
effect  was  that  the  ways  of  thinking  and  speaking  on  the 
subject,  the  utterance,  in  short,  of  the  early  Church,  was 
powerfully  influenced  in  the  arid  direction  by  these  writings. 

This  may  be  the  place  to  notice  an  interesting  reflec- 
tion of  Harnack's.^  He  says,  "  Here  lies  the  difference 
between  Christian  philosophers  of  the  type  of  Justin,  and 
Christian  philosophers  of  the  type  of  Valentinus  (the 
Gnostic).  The  latter  were  seeking  for  a  religion  ;  the  former, 
without  being  clearly  aware  of  it,  being  already  in  posses- 
sion of  an  ethical  view  of  the  world,  were  seeking  for  a 
certification  of  that  view.  The  attitude  of  both  towards 
the  complex  Christian  tradition — in  which,  no  doubt,  many 
elements  could  not  but  attract  them — was  that  of  strangers ; 
but  the  second  class  sought  to  make  this  complex  intelli- 
gible to  themselves,  while  the  first  class  were  content  to 
take  it  that  here  was  revelation, — that  this  revelation, 
whatever  else  was  in  it,  testified  of  one  spiritual  God,  of 
virtue,  and  of  immortality ;  and  that  it  had  power  to  lay  hold 
of  men  and  guide  them  to  a  virtuous  life.  These  last, 
then,  externally  considered,  were  no  doubt  the  Conserva- 
tives ;  but  they  were  such  because  almost  at  no  point 
did  they  reckon  seriously  with  the  content  of  the  Christian 
tradition :  the  Gnostics,  on  the  contrary,  sought  to  under- 
stand what  they  had  read,  and  to  get  to  the  bottom  of 
the  message  which  had  reached  them.  ...  In  short,  the 
Gnostics  tried  to  ascertain  what  Christianity  is  as  a 
religion,  and  under  the  conviction  that  it  is  the  absolute 
religion,  they  offered  to  it  as  a  gift  ...  all  that  they 
reckoned 'lofty  and  sacred,  while  they  removed  from  it  what 
appeared  to  them  to  be  only  subordinate.  The  Apologists 
devoted  their  efforts  to  place  religious  illuminism,  along  with 
morality,  on  a  stable  foundation ;  to  render  impregnable  a 
view  of  the  world  in  which,  if  it  were  impregnable,  they 
could  feel  certain  of  eternal  life.  It  was  this  they  found 
in  traditional  Christianity."  ^ 

This  is  so  far  true,  that  the  Gnostics  insisted  on  think- 
^  Dogmengesch.  i.  p.  375.  *  Compare  also  p.  171. 


98-180]  APOLOGISTS  93 

ing  out  a  complete  theory  of  the  world,  including  Chris- 
tianity, in  which  both  the  prevalence  of  evil  and  the  victory 
of  redemption  were  vividly  embodied,  and  relations  to 
supernatural  beings  and  forces  were  powerfully  asserted. 
But  in  doing  this  the  Gnostics  transformed  Christianity  as 
it  had  been  delivered  to  the  world ;  and,  indeed,  they  may 
be  said  to  have  transformed  morality  too;  for  both  are 
subjected  to  a  thoroughly  fantastic  rationalism.  The  Apolo- 
gists, as  far  as  their  writings  inform  us,  conceived  Chris- 
tianity in  a  scanty  manner ;  but  at  least  they  respected  its 
great  outlines  and  remained  within  them;  and  it  was  a 
tribute  to  the  power  with  which  traditional  Christianity 
held  these  men,  that  they  did  not  venture  to  traverse  its 
positive  teachings.  It  was  safer,  and  more  accordant  with 
a  behever's  attitude,  to  begin  the  work  of  knowledge  with 
one  aspect  of  things,  although  that  might  be  provisional 
and  inadequate,  than  to  try  to  complete  it  at  one  huge 
and  reckless  stride.  In  particular,  to  insist  that  Christian 
religion  fulfils  itself  always  on  moral  lines  was  true,  and 
the  assertion  of  it  by  the  Apologists  was  a  signal  ser- 
vice to  the  cause  of  a  sound  theology.  Finally,  the 
decisive  point  is  that  the  Gnostics,  notwithstanding  their 
vivid  sense  of  the  significance  of  Christ's  appearance,  reaUy 
destroyed  the  faith  of  the  incarnation.  The  Apologists 
barely  develop  the  significance  of  that  great  event,  but  at 
least  they  remain  under  the  influence  of  it.  Some,  as 
Justin  Martyr  and  the  writer  to  Diognetus,  should  have  much 
more  ascribed  to  them.  This  is  the  dividing  line,  which 
proved  to  be  decisive.  "Suo  igitur  sanguine  redimente 
nos  Domino,  et  dante  animam  suam  pro  nostra  anima,  et 
carnem  suam  pro  nostris  carnibus,  et  effundente  Spiritum 
Patris  in  adunitionem  et  communionem  Dei  et  hominis — 
ad  homines  quid  em  deponente  Deum  per  Spiritum,  ad 
Deum  autem  rursus  imponente  hominem  per  suam  incar- 
nationem,  et  firme  et  vere  in  adventu  suq  donante  nobis 
incorruptelam,  per  communionem  quse  est  ad  eum — perierunt 
omnes  hcBreticorum  doctrince  "  (Iren.  v.  1.  1). 


CHAPTEE   VI 

The  Heresies — Gnosticism 

The  chief  early  writers  on  heresies,  now  extant,  are  Irenseus,  Contra 
omnes  hmreticos  (Stieren,  2  vols.,  Lips.  1853,  and  W.  W.  Harvey, 
2  vols.,  Ganib.  1857)  ;  Hippolytus,  Refutatio  (Diincker  u.  Schneide- 
win,  Gott.  1856),  both  in  Clark's  Anti-Nicene  Fathers  ;  Epiphanius, 
Panarion  (Oehler,  4  vols.,  Berol.  1857),  to  which  are  to  be  added 
various  works  of  Tertullian,  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  and  Origen, 
which  discuss  the  Gnostics  or  refer  to  them.  In  modern  discussion 
the  Essays  of  Massuet,  ed.  of  Irenseus,  and  of  Petavius,  ed.  of  Epi- 
phanius, are  reproduced  in  the  editions  mentioned  above  ;  Neander, 
Entwickelung  d.  Gnostischen  Sijsteme,  Berlin,  1818  ;  Matter,  Histoire 
Critique,  3  vols.,  Paris,  1844 ;  Baur,  Die  christliche  Gnosis,  Tiib. 
1835  (also  in  his  Kirchengeschichte,  Tiib.  1860,  and  Dogmengeschichte, 
Leipz,  1866)  ;  Moller,  Geschichte  der  Kosmologie,  Halle,  1860  ;  Mansel, 
Gnostic  Heresies,  London,  1875  ;  Harnack,  Hist,  of  Dogma,  transl. 
by  Buchanan,  London,  1894 ;  Lipsius,  der  Gnosticismus  sein  Wesen, 
U.8.W.,  Leipz.  1860,  with  series  of  articles  by  Lipsius  in  Smith's  Diet, 
of  Christian  Biography,  London,  1877-1887  ;  Loofs,  Leitfaden,  Halle, 
1893.     These  are  selections  from  an  immense  literature. 

The  churches  were  liable  to  disturbance,  not  merely  from 
the  government  and  the  populace,  but  from  questions  raised 
among  the  Christians  themselves ;  and  some  churches,  in 
virtue  of  their  composition  and  their  situation,  were  more 
in  danger  of  it  than  others.  When  these  questions  concerned 
permanent  principles  of  Christian  truth  and  Christian  duty, 
the  risk  of  persistent  divisions  made  itself  felt.  No  doubt  a 
very  wide  field  of  matters  lay  open,  on  which  the  churches 
did  not  profess  ,to  have  attained  a  common  judgment,^  and 

^  One  sees  from  Justin  Martyr  tliat  differences  of  view  about  the  Person 
of  our  Lord  were  already  felt  in  his  time,  and  were  apparently  tolerated,  at 
least  in  some  churches.      These  preluded  the  Monarchian  disputes.     It  seems 

94 


A.D.  98-180]  THE   HERESIES — GNOSTICISM  95 

did  not  try  to  impose  any.  Variety  of  individual  thinking 
could  be  tolerated  in  many  points.  On  the  other  hand,  how- 
ever, the  Christianity  which  lived  in  the  churches  was  felt 
by  all  earnest  Christians  to  have  a  definite  character  which 
must  be  maintained ;  it  was  a  mode  of  spiritual  life,  conscious 
of  the  difference  between  food  and  poison.  So  when  eccentric 
teachers  inculcated  views  which  threatened  to  transform 
Christianity,  to  alter,  as  it  were,  its  centre  of  gravity,  or  to 
pivot  it  on  some  new  axis,  resistance  was  instinctive.  How 
to  distinguish  the  various  cases,  and  how  to  have  the  requisite 
agreement  about  them,  was,  no  doubt,  the  difficulty.  In  the 
earlier  years  of  our  period,  the  disturbing  influences  felt 
seem  to  have  been  mainly,  first,  a  tendency  to  Judaise ;  and, 
secondly,  a  tendency  to  Docetic  notions,  i.e.  to  treat  our 
Lord's  human  nature  as  unreal  and  apparent  only.^  Neither 
tendency  seems  to  have  operated  widely  or  given  much 
trouble.  The  second  claimed  to  give  a  purer  and  more 
spiritual  conception  of  Christ,  and  was  indeed  an  early  stage 
of  the  Gnosticism  of  which  we  are  presently  to  speak.  The 
first  was  a  belated  effort  of  a  dying  party  ;  but  it  could  base 
itself  on  the  authority  of  the  Old  Testament,  universally 
received  in  the  Christian  churches  as  Holy  Scripture.  From 
that  source  it  was  always  possible  to  press  the  literalities  of 
Judaism,  or  some  selected  forms  of  it ;  and  Christians  could 
be  bewildered,  and  needed  to  be  put  upon  their  guard.^  Still 
the  general  mind  of  the  Church  recoiled  from  everything 
distinctively  Jewish  with  decision,  and  even  with  antipathy.^ 
These  were  not  formidable  dangers.  But  from  about 
the  year  1 3  0  *  a  flood  of  speculative  theories  poured  out 
upon  the    churches,  which    pretended   to   give   the   deeper 

more  convenient  to  survey  these  in  one  connected  view,  and  to  reserve  them 
for  that  purpose  to  a  later  chapter  (Chap.  XI.)  under  next  period.  The  Elke- 
saites  have  been  noticed,  in  connection  with  Judaising,  in  Chap.  I. 

*  Ignat.  Epp.  to  Trallians,  Smyrnceans. 

*  Bam.  2,  and  see  Eus.  Hist.  Ecd.  vi.  12.  1. 

*  Didachey  o.  viii.  :  "Do  not  fast  along  with  the  hypocrites  (the  Jews), 
for  they  fast  on  Monday  and  Thursday  ;  but  do  ye  fast  on  Wednesday  and 
Friday." 

*  Manifestations  of  the  same  tendency  appear  a  good  deal  earlier,  but  di4 
not  then  operate  powerfully  or  extensively. 


96  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

and  the  truer  view  of  Christianity.  Varying  in  detail  they 
had  much  in  common,  and  together  they  embodied  a  mental 
tendency  of  the  age.  In  some  of  their  prominent  features 
they  are  so  fantastic  that  the  modern  mind  finds  it  difficult 
to  treat  them  seriously;  but  on  closer  consideration  they 
are  found  to  embody  ideas  and  impressions  that  cannot  be 
so  lightly  set  aside.  Moreover,  the  representative  Gnostics, 
in  point  of  freshness  and  force  of  mind,  were  probably 
on  a  level  with  any  Christians  of  the  second  century. 
Valentinus,  Basilides,  Heracleon,  Ptolemaeus,  Marcion, 
Bardesanes,  —  a  selection  from  a  much  longer  list  —  were 
thinkers ;  some  of  them,  in  their  way,  poets.  The  concep- 
tions which  held  such  minds  could  not  but  appeal  with 
force  to  a  good  many  Christians,  particularly  to  men  of 
education,  conscious  of  the  intellectual  ferment  of  the  age. 
That  the  various  Gnostic  teachers  agreed  so  far,  bears  wit- 
ness to  common  impressions  and  common  cravings  which 
they  all  expressed  ;  that  they  differed  as  they  did,  indicates 
the  wilfulness  of  their  method.  These  men  were  not  ex- 
pounding a  revelation ;  they  were  arranging  their  impressions 
and  their  conjectures.  Yet  all  of  them  had  felt  the  vitalising 
force  of  Christianity. 

The  elements  out  of  which  the  Gnostics  build  their 
theories  are,  in  general,  these — first,  the  grand  distinction 
is  that  between  matter  and  spirit, — the  one  the  element 
of  grossness,  darkness,  deception,  therefore  of  evil  and 
vice ;  the  other  of  light,  truth,  reality,  therefore  also  of 
goodness.  Second,  the  world  we  know,  with  its  hierarchy 
of  beings  from  man  downwards  (including  human  religions, 
politics,  in  short  the  whole  scenery  of  the  world),  is  a  mixture 
in  various  degrees  of  the  two  elements,  the  rational  and  the 
irrational.  How  is  it  to  be  understood  ?  It  is  the  case 
of  a  better  nature  imprisoned  in  a  worse.  A  kind  of 
"  wisdom  "  goes  through  all  the  world,  rising  here  and  there 
to  clearer  manifestation ;  but  it  is  a  captive  wisdom,  gone 
astray,  entangled  in  a  foreign  element.  It  has  become  carnal. 
Thirdly,  belief  in  God,  goodness,  and  salvation,  means  belief 
in  a  higher  world,  where  the  better  element  exists  in  purity 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES— GNOSTICISM  97 

and  power;  it  exists  in  hierarchies  of  beings  (the  seons),^ 
graduated  perhaps,  yet  all  divine,  and  all  manifesting  the 
central  source  whom  we  call  God.  That  world  is  the  Pleroma.^ 
Fourthly,  returning  to  this  world,  we  note  that  not  merely 
is  matter  pervaded  by  a  certain  "  wisdom," — it  is  amenable 
so  far  to  order  and  can  palpitate  into  life, — but  the  world 
has  something  architectonic  about  it ;  its  vault  of  heaven, 
its  plain  of  earth,  its  tribes  of  animals,  its  kingdoms  of 
men  with  traditions  and  laws.  Someone^  has  been  here 
ordering,  disposing ;  but  if  so,  it  is  someone  who  from 
his  birth  has  never  conceived  any  higher  work,  otherwise 
he  would  not  have  busied  himself  with  this.  This  is  the 
Demiurge,  the  Maker,  the  great  carnal  Worker.  Fifthly, 
as  to  the  religions  of  the  world,  they  are  classed  as  evil — 
the  pagan  ;  medium  —  the  Jewish ;  good  —  the  Christian, 
gnostically  understood.  The  Demiurge  is  the  God  of  the 
Jews,  and  of  the  Old  Testament.  He  is  doing  what  he 
can  to  make  the  world  perfect,  with  no  great  success ;  and 
the  Jews  are  his  special  people,  with  whom  he  has  taken 
particular  pains.  He  has  promised  them  a  Messiah,  and 
an  earthly  triumph  under  his  guidance.  When  the  supreme 
God,  or  the  joint  wisdom  of  the  Pleroma,  interposes  at 
last,  in  Christianity,  the  administrations  of  the  Demiurge 
are  taken  possession  of  by  this  higher  power  and  are  made 
vehicles  of  higher  influences.  Sixthly,  Christ  is  a  wonderful 
concentration  of  the  light  and  virtue  of  the  Pleroma. 
He  comes  forth  in  fitting  time  to  deliver  what  can  be 
delivered  of  the  captive  element.  There  are  men,  there 
have  always  been,  in  whom  the  divine  spark  comes  out 
more  clearly  and  victoriously,  or  in  whom  it  can  be  roused 
into  decisive  manifestation.  These  are  souls  susceptible 
of  the  true  salvation.  The  coming  of  Christ  is  the  signal 
for  their  emancipation.  Deliverance  comes  home  to  them 
as  they  catch  sight  of  the  significance  of  His  coming,  and 

^  The  numbering  and  naming  of  these  aeons  is  the  most  fantastic  element 
in  Gnosticism. 
^  The  fulness. 
•  It  might  be  a  company — angels,  star  spirits,  etc 

7 


98  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

become  possessed  with  the  true  view  of  things;  and  this 
effect  is  promoted  by  various  rites.  About  Christ  Him- 
self {e.g.  in  His  relation  to  the  man  Jesus),  and  about  the 
influence  He  exerts  on  different  classes  of  men,  a  variety 
of  views  existed.  Some  systems  provided  a  kind  of  in- 
ferior well-being  for  Christians  of  the  letter  who  are  not 
capable  of  Gnostic  insight,  nor  therefore  of  Gnostic  salva- 
tion. Seventhly,  the  hope  of  the  Gnostics  was  to  rise 
clear  of  all  material  entanglement  into  the  realm  of  light, 
knowledge,  incorruption.  What  this  would  prove  to  be 
remained  very  vague ;  no  details  could  be  given. 

Some  particulars  of  the  various  systems  will  appear 
below.  Meanwhile  let  us  observe  what  the  points  were 
on  which  Gnosticism  challenged  Christian  thought,  and  so 
accelerated  its  development.^ 

Only  let  this  be  emphasised  in  the  first  place,  that 
the  Gnostics  with  whom  we  have  to  do  were  Christians. 
Justin  Martyr  says  that  the  followers  of  Simon,  of  Menander, 
of  Marcus,  were  all  called  Christians.  Apart  from  general 
repute  their  own  teaching  proves  it.  Wild  as  their 
speculations  were,  still  for  all  of  them  Christianity  was 
not  only  a  true  religion ;  it  was  the  absolute  and  final 
religion.  The  coming  of  Christ  was  the  great  inter- 
position, the  decisive  crisis  of  the  world.  On  it  the 
destiny  of  all  spiritual  natures  depended.  Neander^  has 
remarked  how  striking  the  testimony  is  which  is  thus 
rendered  to  the  impression  produced  by  Christ  and  the 
gospel ;  for,  indeed,  this  conviction  about  Christ  became  the 
starting-point  of  some  of  the  strangest  Gnostic  theories. 
They  paid  this  tribute  to  a  sect  despised  by  Celsus,  scoffed 
at  by  Lucian,  everywhere  spoken  against.  In  connection 
with  no  form  of  teaching  of  that  century  but  the  Christian, 
do  we  find  such  an  eager  host  of  cultivated  and  speculative 
men,  inspired  with  the  conviction  that  in  the  gospel  they 
have  found  the  centre  of  truth  and  life ;  yet  resolute  to  con- 

^  This  outline  would  have  to  be  modified  in  various  details  to  fit  to  par- 
ticular Gnostic  systems.     This  is  specially  true  of  the  system  of  Basilides. 
^  Neander,  History  (Clark's  trapsl. ),  ii.  p.  5. 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — GNOSTICISM  99 

strue  it  into  harmony  with  intellectual  prejudices  which  they 
feel  to  be  imperative.^ 

First,  then,  Christianity  is  a  remedial  scheme.  The  prob- 
lem it  proposes  to  deal  with  is  sin.  Deliverance  from 
other  evils  will  follow  sooner  or  later  if  this  be  healed.  The 
Gnostics  accepted  this  Christian  thought.  They  confessed  an 
evil  which  needed  for  its  cure  an  interposition  from  on  high ; 
and  they  recognised  this  interposition  in  the  person,  history, 
and  teaching  of  Christ. 

But  they  judged  that  the  problem  to  be  solved  by 
redemption  reached  farther  than  the  ordinary  Christian 
supposed.  The  Gnostic  did  not  begin  with  a  world  which 
is  good,  or  is  neutral,  and  then  conceive  sin  coming  into 
it,  or  arising  in  it,  to  mar  it.  For  him  human  sin  is  only 
one  feature  of  a  larger  evil  —  the  pervading  evil  of  the 
world  itself,  rooted  in  its  very  constitution. 

That  there  is  a  difficulty  about  the  world,  and  about 
the  course  of  providence,  was  not  concealed  in  the  Old 
Testament  or  the  New.  Anyone  who  looks  closely  into 
life  is  apt  to  have  suggested  to  him  some  deep  disease  in 
the  nature  and  course  of  things.  Yet  neither  Scripture  nor 
the  faith  of  the  Church  could  be  moved  from  the  conviction 
that  the  moral  problem  —  the  problem  created  by  human 
wills — is  the  essential  one  for  man,  and  is  that  with  which 
redemption  must  deal. 

Still  the  problem  of  the  world  is  a  perplexing  one; 
and  in  some  moods  it  presses  on  the  mind  with  dangerous 
force.  More  seems  to  be  wrong  than  only  the  sin  of  erring 
wills.  Pain,  death,  decay  are  everywhere ;  the  world  sug- 
gests a  good  which  it  does  not  impart.  The  theory  that 
man's  fall  brought  evil  after  it  for  other  creatures,  seems 
inadequate  to  explain  the  mystery.  The  very  constitution 
of  things  by  which  man  is  partaker  of  animal  life,  and  is 
pressed  by  all  kinds  of  physical  necessities,  seems  of  itself  to 
bring  in  and  begin  the  irreconcilable  conflict.  In  this  very 
constitution  are  not  the  sources  of  evil  already  present,  the 
influences  which  lower  life  and  baffle  its  aspirations  ? 
*  See  Harnack,  Dogmengesch.  i.  p,  171. 


100       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

The  Gnostic  thought  so ;  and  he  asserted  his  conviction 
in  the  most  emphatic  way.  Evil  in  man's  life  is  only  a 
particular  case  of  evil  present  everywhere  in  a  world 
that  is  essentially  base,  disappointing,  perverse.  This 
system  of  things  has  about  it  just  so  much  of  a  suggestion 
of  something  better,  just  so  much  of  a  nisus  towards  that, 
as  to  stamp  it  with  the  character  of  defeat  and  disgrace. 
It  is  radically  mistaken  and  evil.  So  evil  in  man  and 
world  alike  has  a  deep  root.  It  is  in  the  nature  of 
things.^ 

On  this  system  one  clearly  could  not  speak  of  the 
creature,  man,  as  having  fallen,  nor  yet  of  the  whole 
creation  as  fallen.  Eather,  the  creation  is  itself  the  fall. 
That  is,  the  mere  constitution  of  this  world,  or  of  any 
world  that  has  a  material  fabric,  is  its  disgrace,  its  fault. 
If  some  wisdom,  and  therefore  some  goodness,  can  be 
traced  in  the  world,  it  is  a  fallen  wisdom,  and  it  is  a 
goodness  fettered  and  imprisoned  under  forces  too  strong 
for  it.  Sin  in  man  is  but  the  concreated  defect — the  same 
in  principle  throughout  the  whole  creation. 

Probably  the  Gnostic  was  not  so  consistent  in  all  this 
as  to  leave  no  room  for  responsibility — for  men  being 
possibly  better  or  worse  within  certain  limits.  Still  the 
tendency  of  the  scheme  was  towards  fatalism,  which  is 
always  strongly  charged  upon  the  Gnostics  by  their 
opponents.  That  came  out  not  only  in  the  doctrine  of 
sin,  but  in  the  classes  of  men  (pneumatic,  psychic,  hylic), 
who  are  determined  to  be  such  by  their  natures  and  cannot 
be  other.  This  brought  out  the  thinkers  and  teachers  of 
the  Church  on  the  subject   of    responsibility,  which    they 

^  Possibly  the  Gnostics  felt  themselves  all  the  more  entitled  to  lean  in 
this  direction,  because  they  perceived  among  their  fellow-Christians  a  mode 
of  thought  on  the  subject  which  was  superficial.  Those  who  put  to  the 
front  the  freedom  of  the  will  as  the  clue  to  man's  condition  were  apt  to 
think  of  sins  merely  as  isolated  acts  of  transgression,  or  at  worst,  as  habits 
formed  by  such  acts.  Thinkers  of  this  class  certainly  existed  at  the  end  of 
the  second  century  (e.g.  Clement),  and  might  well  do  so  at  the  beginning 
of  it.  The  Gnostic  might  feel  himself  entitled  to  correct  this  in  the  interest 
of  a  profounder  view.  Sin  in  men  is  not  merely  acts  of  sin ;  it  is  a  state 
which  is  the  fruitful  mother  of  acts. 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — GNOSTICISM  101 

grounded  on  an  extremely  resolute,  and  not  very  dis- 
criminating, assertion  of  the  freedom  of  the  will.  Gnosti- 
cism, in  this  view,  may  be  taken  as  the  earliest  advocacy 
on  Christian  ground  of  a  kind  of  necessarianism  by  natural 
law.  It  began  a  great  debate  which  was  to  take  many 
turns  and  to  assume  many  forms. 

The  Gnostic  view  of  the  world  represents  an  im- 
pression of  it  which  exists  in  all  periods.  Not  many  years 
ago  it  was  vividly  expressed  by  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill,  when  he 
declared  that  if  we  assume  a  Maker  of  the  world,  he 
must  be  regarded  as  either  not  able,  or  not  willing,  to  make 
it  very  good.  Accordingly  the  Gnostic  doctrine  of  the  world 
reacted  on  their  doctrine  of  God.  So  imperfect  a  world 
must  have  a  very  inferior  author,  far  below  the  Supreme 
Truth  and  Goodness.  Hence,  although  creation  is  still 
regarded  as  containing  an  element  or  an  influence  which 
holds  remotely  from  the  Supreme  God,  yet  creation  ceases, 
properly  speaking,  to  reveal  Him.  The  purpose  and  plan 
and  work  of  creation  are  no  longer  His ;  and  the  same  has 
to  be  said  of  ordinary  providence.  At  the  same  time,  we 
lose  hold  of  everything  that  helps  us  to  think  of  God  as 
personal.  He  retires  to  an  unapproachable  distance.  True, 
the  spiritual  element  in  the  world  is  referred  to  Him  by 
emanation ;  but  it  is  rather  material  to  work  with  than 
any  determinate  presence  of  God  with  creatures.  The 
world,  therefore,  when  it  comes  into  existence,  has  a  cer- 
tain connection  with  God;  there  is  an  element  in  it  which 
has  fallen  or  has  been  stolen  from  Him;  but  the  world 
is  not  the  creature  of  His  hand,  nor  the  object  of  His  care. 
As  to  redemption,  on  the  other  hand,  some  of  these  systems 
seem  to  make  it  to  originate  at  a  point  lower  than  true  and 
and  original  Godhead, — in  which  case  redemption  also  would 
only  remotely  reveal  God.  Yet  all  of  them  regard  redemption 
as  originating  in  the  Pleroma,  and  as  aiming  at  restoring  men, 
or  some  of  them,  to  the  region  of  divine  light  and  influence. 
And  some  systems  trace  redemption  clearly  enough  to  the 
purpose  and  love  of  the  Highest  God.  This  was  emphatic- 
ally the  case  with  Marcion.     In  such  systems  the  true  God 


102       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

is  at  last  revealed  in  Christ,  and,  more  or  less  explicitly, 
with  a  character  of  loving-kindness. 

Against  these  views  the  Church  set  the  Old  Testament 
doctrine  of  God  as  the  maker  of  all  things.  His  creatures, 
though  far  below  Him,  do  yet  so  far  manifest  His  power 
and  glory,  and  are  the  objects  of  His  government.  Also, 
He  who  became  incarnate  as  Eedeemer  was  the  especial 
agent  in  creation.  Very  likely  there  might  be  among  the 
members  of  the  churches,  even  apart  from  full-blown 
Gnosticism,  many  who  were  disposed  to  account  for  the 
defects  of  creatures  by  postulating  a  ministry  of  angels  as  the 
immediate  authors  of  them.  But  if  so,  these  thoughts  were 
speedily  suppressed  in  the  Catholic  affirmation  of  God  the 
Maker.  Ever  since  those  days  the  question,  in  what  sense 
the  world  testifies  of  God  and  reveals  Him,  has  been  in 
hand,  and  it  is  active  yet. 

Besides  the  assertion  of  God  the  Maker,  the  Church 
had  two  other  specific  articles  to  set  against  Gnosticism  at 
this  point.  One  was  the  goodness  of  the  creatures.  As 
creatures  they  are  all  good,  each  in  its  place.  Henceforth 
asceticism,  however  zealous  and  exaggerated,  had  to  com- 
bine its  self-denials  and  its  repudiations  of  creature  com- 
fort with  the  acknowledgment  that  the  creatures  thus 
renounced  after  all  are  good.  To  have  failed  at  this  point 
was  the  chief  heresy  imputed  to  Tatian. 

The  other  article  was  man's  creation  in  the  image  of 
God.  Man,  therefore,  as  man,  is  capable  of  fellowship  with 
God.  Not  only  is  he  a  creature  good  in  his  degree,  but  it 
is  a  very  high  degree.  He  ought  to  aspire  to  be  man, 
nothing  less  and  nothing  else.  In  those  days  it  often 
happened  that  the  experience  of  inward  defeat,  division,  and 
disgrace  bred  a  sad  conviction  that  human  goodness  was 
impossible.  The  only  hope  left  was  that  of  being  trans- 
ferred into  some  state  of  being  that  denied  human  condi- 
tions. The  Gnostic  theorised  that  feeling.  The  Church, 
confessing  human  weakness  and  danger,  yet  maintained  that 
"  in  the  image  of  God  made  He  man." 

The  Gnostic,  while  he  took  no  high  view  of  man  as  man, 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — GNOSTICISM  103 

yet  held  that  certain  men  are  constituted  so  as  to  be  cap- 
able of  knowing  God,  and  are  destined  to  the  upper  world 
as  their  proper  home.  These  are  men  in  whom  the  divine 
spark  asserts  itself  above  and  against  the  seducing  and  de- 
pressing flesh ;  they  have  this  eminence  by  nature,  as  others 
by  nature  have  it  not. 

Not  merely  the  Gnostic  teaching  about  the  world,  but 
the  Gnostic  mood  or  attitude  of  mind  upon  the  subject, 
received  its  most  picturesque  expression  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  Demiurge.^  Not  only  is  there  a  Sophia  or  an  Achamoth 
who  has  diffused  herself,  or  has  diffused  her  influence, 
throughout  the  masses  of  matter  of  which  the  world  is 
composed,  making  all  in  some  degree  amenable  to  form 
and  law,  but,  below  her  and  after  her,  there  has  been 
Somebody  at  work  trying  what  he  can  make  out  of  the 
material  so  prepared.  In  this  Demiurge  was  summed  up 
for  the  Gnostic  the  utmost  and  highest  that  the  ordered 
fabric  of  the  world  suggests.  He  is  the  king  of  carnal 
natures ;  the  chief  instance  of  a  wisdom  caught  somehow 
from  on  high,  which  has  become  permanently  fettered  in 
a  material  environment.  He  is  ever  looking  downward, 
ever  labouring  about  material  things  and  conditions,  or 
about  men  considered  as  beings  with  conditions  and 
aims  like  his  own.  He  strives  constantly  and  vainly  to 
perfect  what  cannot  be  perfected ;  he  spends  on  such  work 
care  and  pains  which  the  Gnostic  counted  irrational,  and 
which  is  doomed  finally  to  disgrace;  in  short,  he  is  the 
great  busybody — Treptepyo^; — who  goes  out  incessantly  into 
the  divided,  the  external,  the  manifold.  In  his  dealings 
with  men  he  strives  to  order  them  by  laws  and  penalties, 
and  with  very  partial  success.  The  Jews  are  his  favourite 
people,  and  show  the  utmost  reach  of  his  plans.  He  has 
promised  them  a  Messiah  to  endow  them  with  terrestrial 
weal.  This  kingdom  of  the  Demiurge  was  what  the 
Gnostic,  looking  round  the  great  world,  seemed  to  see ;  and 
he  renounced  and  defied  the  kingdom  and  the  king.  It 
suggests  strange  thoughts  of  the  temper  and  the  experience  of 

*  A  7;)[uoi//)76$= creator. 


104       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCS       [a.d. 

those  days,  that  such  an  attitude  towards  nature  should  be 
possible.  Perhaps  we  may  add  that,  in  a  form  lamentable 
enough  certainly,  we  see  here  the  intensity  of  the  Christian 
feeling  as  to  good  and  evil  imparting  itself  to  the  Gnostic 
mind.  There  is  a  sombre  intensity  about  it,  which  could 
hardly  proceed  from  the  Greek  schools,  nor  even  from  the 
Oriental  dualists.^ 

As  regards  the  Eedeemer's  person,  the  Gnostic  view  of 
matter  excluded  a  real  incarnation.  To  be  incarnate 
would  imply  so  far  a  captivity  to  evil.  Therefore  the 
Saviour  from  the  Pleroma,  who  is  purely  spiritual,  descends 
upon  the  Messiah  prepared  by  the  Demiurge,  and  makes 
him  the  organ  of  the  higher  plan — the  supreme  purpose  of 
salvation.  On  this  scheme  he  who  dies  on  Calvary  is  the 
Messiah  of  the  Demiurge,  and  the  Saviour  is  conceived  to 
have  previously  departed  from  him.  It  is  another  version 
of  the  same  general  theory  when  the  human  nature  of 
Christ  is  treated  as  illusive — a  mere  deceptive  show. 

Heretofore  apparently  the  Church  had  not  encountered 
much  doubt  as  to  our  Lord's  true  manhood.  A  vague 
docetic  tendency  had  indeed  appeared  before  the  days  of 
formal  and  express  Gnosticism,^  but  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  very  definite.  Manhood  was  the  aspect  of  our  Lord 
that  pressed  upon  the  senses  of  men  during  His  life  on 
earth  ;  and  the  first  error  was  to  assert  that  He  was  no  more 
than  man,  or  was  only  a  man  elevated  by  divine  influence 
at  His  baptism  to  a  higher  capacity.  Against  this  was  set 
the  assertion  of  our  Lord's  pre-existence  in  the  higher 
nature.  But  in  Gnosticism,  while  pre-existent  divinity  (in 
the  shadowy  sense  in  which  degrees  of  it  are  admitted  by 

1  There  is  a  pervading  difference  between  the  mood  of  the  Gnostic  and 
that  of  his  Greek  models.  With  them  the  sense  of  evil  was  weak,  though 
the  sense  of  deformity  might  be  strong.  The  effect  of  the  material  element 
was  therefore  more  calmly  and  mildly  conceived  ;  matter  was  the  element 
of  defect ;  it  can  never  be  brought  up  to  the  ideal.  In  the  Gnostic  there  is 
a  certain  bitterness  and  disdain.  His  Christianity  operated  here ;  or  else 
some  old  Oriental  conceptions  revealed  their  peculiar  way  of  working. 

2  Ignat.  ad  Trail,  and  ad  Smym.  ;  Gospel  of  St.  Peter ^  as  read  by  Serapion 
of  Autioch. 


98-180]  a:HE   HERESIES — GNOSTICISM  l05 

Gnosticism)  is  ascribed  to  Christ,  the  human  nature  is 
denied  or  explained  away.  Here  then  the  Church  had  to 
assert  the  human  nature,  the  true  birth  and  the  true 
human  experience  of  the  Son  of  God ;  and  men  were  led  to 
dwell  on  the  benefit  achieved  for  us  in  that  way.^  In 
regard  to  His  higher  nature  also  stress  was  laid  on  His 
being  the  Only-Begotten ;  not  one  of  many,  holding  more 
or  less  remotely  of  the  divine  nature,  but  the  Father's  only 
and  perfect  Son — whose  incarnation  therefore  carries  to  us 
a  quite  unique  expression  of  divine  care  and  love. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Gnostics  undervalued  the 
thought  of  redemption.  Eather  it  may  be  true  that  the 
Gnostics  had  a  livelier  sense  of  a  great  deliverance  than 
was  cherished  by  a  good  many  of  the  so-called  orthodox 
among  their  contemporaries.  Christ's  coming  was  for  them 
the  epoch  of  a  great  extrication.  The  sparks  of  divine 
nature  in  all  susceptible  souls  were  to  be  gathered  to 
Christ  as  their  true  centre,  and  to  the  upper  world  as  their 
true  home.  In  a  sense  this  came  to  pass  by  faith,  if 
faith  be  understood  as  a  form  of  thinking.  The  Gnostic 
Christian  became  aware  of  his  relation  to  this  Saviour  and 
this  destiny,  and,  becoming  conscious  of  it,  he  possessed  it 
and  reaped  its  fruits.  Some  of  them  might  lay  stress  on 
the  necessity  of  its  being  such  a  consciousness  as  could 
animate  and  inspire  the  life.  At  any  rate,  Christ's  appear- 
ance is  the  redemption.  It  would  be  congruous  to  this  to 
hold  that  Christ's  interposition  operates  only  as  it  is  illumin- 
ative, as  it  vividly  illustrates  the  true  relations  of  the 
universe,  and  lays  the  foundations  of  a  teaching  able  to 
come  home  to  those  who  are  to  be  gathered  in.  That 
would  seem  to  be,  theoretically,  all.  Yet  it  is  true,  perhaps, 
that  many  Gnostics  conceived  the  coming  of  Chi'ist  to  have 
a  mystical  influence  (not  capable  of  further  explanation) 
which  somehow  emancipates  the  seonic  natures,  and  breaks 
the  spell  which  held  them  captive.  With  this  side  of 
things  might  be  connected  observances,  ascetic  and  ritual,  on 

^  Irensus,  iii.  18.  6,  7,  and  elsewhere  often.     Ignatius  had  previously  led 
this  way  with  great  decision.     Eph.  xix.  etc. 


106       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

which  we  know  that  various  Gnostic  sects  laid  stress ;  but 
these  we  are  not  in  circumstances  to  conceive  with  clearness. 

The  Church,  of  course,  had  no  objection  to  the  stress 
laid  on  the  illuminative  function  of  Christ.  But  her  teachers 
maintained  against  the  Gnostics  the  reality  and  also  the 
importance  of  His  death,  though  no  remarkable  success 
attended  their  efforts  to  explain  the  grounds  of  it  as  part 
of  the  divine  plan.  On  the  other  hand,  against  the  Gnostic 
method  of  salvation  by  illumination,  operating  in  souls  of 
a  certain  susceptible  class,  the  Church  laid  stress  on  the 
surrender  of  the  will,  and  asserted  it  to  be,  by  grace,  open  to 
all  kinds  of  men  everywhere. 

The  Gnostics  divided  men  into  classes,  two  classes 
according  to  some,  according  to  the  more  popular  teaching 
three,  pneumatic  or  spiritual,  psychic  or  carnal,  and  hylic 
or  material,  i.e.  gross  and  low.  On  this  classification  a 
place  was  provided  (among  the  psychic)  for  the  ordinary 
Christians — the  men  of  mere  pistis  as  opposed  to  gnosis — 
who  take  Christianity  in  the  letter,  and  who  regulate  their 
conduct  by  the  rules  of  civil  righteousness.  These  have 
a  relative  acceptance,  and,  eventually,  a  kind  of  lower 
blessedness  which  suits  them.  But  the  true  ideal  Church 
consists  only  of  the  Gnostics,  who,  being  by  their  nature 
akin  to  the  upper  world,  respond  to  the  revelation  of 
Christ,  discern  its  true  significance,  and  experience  its 
power.  Many  Gnostics  were  disposed  to  veil  the  effect  of 
this  part  of  their  scheme,  to  keep  their  connection  with 
the  churches,  and  to  assume  the  character  of  a  select 
class  of  Christians,  but  yet  in  fellowship  with  the  larger 
membership.  In  proportion,  however,  as  the  Church 
realised  the  true  position  of  the  Gnostics  on  this  point, 
it  was  felt  to  be  intolerable.  The  distinction  between 
faith  and  knowledge  was  recognised  by  the  defenders  of 
the  Catholic  belief ;  but  the  sufficiency  of  faith  to  procure 
an  interest  in  the  peculiar  blessings  of  Christianity  was 
always  maintained ;  often,  however,  it  must  be  confessed, 
on  principles  that  were  unsatisfactory  and  confused. 

The  distinctions  just  referred  to  were,  of  course,  carried 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — GNOSTICISM  107 

out  by  the  Gnostics  in  reference  to  the  final  destiny  of  in- 
dividuals. Speaking  generally,  the  men  of  each  class  are 
assigned  by  their  nature  to  the  destiny  appropriate  to 
them ;  and  since,  even  in  the  case  of  the  most  select  men, 
only  the  pneumatic  element  in  them  could  go  so  high  as 
the  Pleroma,  some  systems  were  led  by  considerations  of 
consistency  to  assert  a  final  disintegration  of  human  beings, 
one  element,  for  example,  of  the  spiritual  man  going  to  one 
destiny  and  another  to  another.  In  this  connection  the 
Gnostic  way  of  thinking  dropped  the  whole  eschatological 
expectation  of  the  Church,  and  did  not  even  try  to  replace 
it  by  any  substitute  that  might  appeal  to  the  imagination. 
Emancipation  from  the  flesh  and  from  the  forces  of  the 
lower  world  were  for  them  everything.  The  Church 
asserted,  on  the  other  side,  the  old  eschatology — the  return 
of  Christ,  His  glorious  kingdom,  and  the  resurrection  of  the 
body.  In  this  last  article  the  Church  at  the  end,  as  at  the 
beginning,  maintained  the  essential  goodness  of  human 
nature. 

The  attitude  of  the  Gnostics  to  the  Old  Testament  and 
to  Judaism  must  be  understood  in  the  light  of  the  corre- 
sponding attitude  of  the  Church.  The  Church  repudiated 
Judaism,  with  all  that  was  national  and  ceremonial  in 
Jewish  religion.  At  the  same  time  it  claimed  the  Old 
Testament  as  a  Christian  book — Christian  in  its  true  sense. 
The  Christians,  of  course,  had  no  difficulty  in  taking  pos- 
session of  that  in  the  Old  Testament  which  was  obviously 
moral  and  spiritual.  For  the  rest,  they  thought  it  proper 
to  maintain  that  the  Jews  greatly  misconceived  the  char- 
acter and  end  of  the  law  imposed  on  them,  or,  at  all 
events,  had  always  missed  the  main  sense,  i.e.  the  evan- 
gelical sense,  the  reference  to  New  Testament  events  and 
truths;  for  these  must  be  understood  to  be  all  along  the 
main  purpose  of  revelation.  The  Christians  therefore  re- 
sorted extensively  to  allegorical  interpretation,  in  order  to 
make  out  a  sense  in  harmony  with  their  assumption. 

Now  the  Gnostics,  or  most  of  them,  could  allegorise, 
and  they  did.     But  to  allegorise  to  the  extent  necessary  to 


108       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       U-D. 

adapt  the  whole  Old  Testament  to  their  theories  would 
have  been  absurd.  The  Old  Testament  and  Judaism  spoke 
too  plainly  of  a  God  who  created  the  world  and  cared  for 
it ;  who  set  apart  a  land  for  His  people,  provided  for  them, 
punished  them,  ruled  them  by  laws.  That  was  the  char- 
acter which  the  Gnostic  ascribed  to  the  Demiurge ;  he  is 
therefore  at  once  Maker  of  the  world  and  God  of  the  Jews. 
The  Old  Testament,  therefore,  is  mainly  the  revelation  of 
the  Demiurge ;  and  the  view  taken  of  it  fluctuated  according 
as  Gnostic  schools  either  regarded  the  Demiurge  as  mainly 
hostile  to  the  higher  world,  or  judged  his  influence  more 
mildly  as  leading  to  order  and  justice,  though  on  a  low 
plane  and  within  narrow  limits.  On  either  view,  however, 
the  Gnostics  could  confess  that  the  Old  Testament  con- 
tains passages  of  a  higher  strain.  These  are  utterances 
of  spiritual  men  who  arose  in  Judaism  from  time  to  time. 
They  appeared  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Demiurge,  but  really 
belonged  to  the  higher  kingdom.  They  were  generally 
misunderstood,  and  could  not  at  that  time  make  head 
against  the  system  in  which  they  were  involved.  The  Old 
Testament,  therefore,  was  a  very  miscellaneous  book,  and  a 
process  of  very  free  thought  could  be  applied  to  it.^  On 
the  whole,  it  might  be  a  book  not  unprofitable  to  simple 
Christians  on  condition  of  their  always  translating  it  into  a 
Christian  sense ;  but  the  larger  part  of  it  could  be  accounted 
for  only  by  ascribing  it  to  an  author  distinct  from  the 
Spirit  of  Christ.  Very  likely  this  did  not  seem  to  the 
Gnostics  the  most  formidable  part  of  their  system  to  main- 
tain ;  yet  nothing  operated  more  conclusively  against  them 
than  just  the  fact  that  they  ascribed  the  Old  Testament 
to  another  and  a  lower  being  than  the  true  God.  Many 
of  their  speculations  could  have  been  forgiven  to  them,  but 
not  this. 

Against  the  Gnostics  the  Church  maintained  the  apos- 
tolic position:  it  clung  to  the  Old  Testament.  But  in 
doing  so  it  showed  little  aptitude  to  understand  or  appre- 

^  See    especially  the    remarkable    letter    from    PtolemfiBUS   (Valeutiuian 
Gnoatic)  to  Flora,  Epiph.  Panar.  Hxr.  33. 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — GNOSTICISM  109 

ciate  either  the  Pauline  explanations  or  those  advanced  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  Men  simply  laid  stress  on 
the  right  to  allegorise,  as  furnishing  the  means  of  bringing 
out  the  required  evangelical  sense.  In  fact,  the  view  was 
that  large  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  must  be  taken  in  a 
non-natural  or  not  obvious  sense,  if  its  position  as  Christian 
Scripture  was  to  be  maintained.  Hence  Origen  lays  it 
down  {de  Princ,  Prcef.)  as  universally  agreed  that  the 
Scriptures  have  not  only  the  plain  sense  but  a  concealed 
one,  and  that  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  whole  Church  that 
the  Law  is  to  be  spiritualised.  Also  (iv.  8)  he  says  that 
it  is  because  the  heretics  take  many  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures in  the  plain  sense,  that  they  do  not  ascribe  them  to 
the  highest  God.^ 

In  regard  to  the  Canon  of  the  New  Testament,  it  is 
likely,  on  every  account,  that  such  a  challenge  as  Gnosticism 
addressed  to  Christians  with  respect  to  what  was  to  be 
believed,  should  set  men  on  to  settle  definitely  the  sources 
that  could  be  appealed  to  as  reliable  and  authoritative 
in  regard  to  the  main  tenets  of  the  religion.  In  the 
beginning  of  the  second  century  ideas  on  this  point  were 
probably  vague  among  all  parties.  The  Gnostics,  like  other 
Christian  schools,  claimed  the  possession  of  traditions  which 
connected  them  with  the  authoritative  times  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith;  and  we  read  of  gospels,  some  of  which  might 
be  Gnostic  versions  of  the  Christian  tradition,  but  they 
seem  rather  to  have  been  treatises  on  the  Gnostic  theory 
of  the  imiverse — "  Philosophies  of  the  Plan  of  Salvation." 
Marcion,  of  whom  something  will  be  said  presently,  pro- 
posed a  canon  of  New  Testament  books,  and  that  step,  of 
course,  was  a  fresh  motive  to  the  orthodox  Church  to  set 

*  Hamack  has  remarked  that  as  long  as  the  strain  of  the  Gnostic  contro- 
versy lasted  this  principle  was  not  applied  to  the  New  Testament  by  the 
orthodox :  it  was  the  Gnostics  who  held  that  the  allegorical  key  might  be 
applied  to  the  events  of  Christ's  life  and  to  His  sayings  as  well  as  to  those  of 
His  authorised  followers,  by  the  same  right  by  which  the  Church,  from  their 
point  of  view,  applied  it  to  the  Old  Testament  Scripture.  Origen's  rules  of 
interpretation  include  the  application  of  allegory  to  the  New  Testament  ;  but 
this  rather  shows  that  the  Gnostic  crisis  had  passed. 


110       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

forth  and  lay  stress  on  a  canon  of  her  own.  But  while 
the  Gnostics  had  a  literature,  partly  apocryphal,  as  the 
orthodox  also  had,  it  does  not  appear,  except  in  Marcion's 
case,  that  there  was  any  prolonged  conflict  over  the  canon. 
Probably  it  soon  became  evident  to  Gnostics  as  to  Catholics 
that  there  was,  after  all,  a  limited  and  tolerably  definite 
set  of  books  which  could  claim  respect  as  undoubted 
monuments  of  the  apostolic  teaching.  In  the  fragments 
of  Gnostic  literature  still  surviving,  what  strikes  one  is 
the  habitual  appeal  on  their  part,  as  well  as  on  that  of 
their  opponents,  to  our  well-known  books.  In  fact  the 
Gnostics  seem  to  have  produced  the  first  regular  commen- 
taries on  writings  of  the  Apostles  Paul  and  John,  as  well  as 
the  first  regular  discussions  of  theological  themes.^  That 
is,  the  writings  of  Paul  and  John  seemed  to  men  of  this 
type  to  have  significance,  in  the  way  of  thoughtful  setting 
out  of  principles,  which  was  little  appreciated  in  the 
churches ;  and  what  they  said  of  flesh  and  spirit,  of  the 
true  God  and  the  God  of  this  world,  of  the  Pleroma,  and 
many  other  topics,  could  be  shown  to  imply  the  principles 
of  an  esoteric  scheme  differing  widely  from  the  common 
Christianity  of  the  churches.  Hence,  while  they  criticised 
the  Old  Testament,  the  Gnostics  set  themselves  to  discuss  the 
monuments  of  the  Christian  tradition,  and  thus  to  base  them- 
selves not  merely  on  speculation,  but  upon  authority  too. 

The  Church  joined  issue  with  the  Gnostic  teachers  as 
to  the  real  meaning  of  these  books.  But  this  was  not 
judged  to  be  a  sufficient  defence.  Hence  the  belief  of  the 
great  apostolic  churches  was  put  forward,  in  the  form  of 
the  regula^  as  the  decisive  test  of  the  essentials  of  Chris- 
tianity. Scripture  was  to  be  used  on  that  foundation  and 
within  those  limits.  Some  Gnostics  also  appear  to  have 
had  a  regula,  and  not  so  very  unlike  that  of  the  orthodox 
Church  as  one  would  have  expected. 

The  Gnostics  based  their  ethical  teaching  upon  the 
antagonism  between  the  spiritual  and  the  sensuous  element 
in   man.      It   has   often   been   remarked   that   any   system 

*  Basilides,  Valentinus,  Heracleon.  ^  See  Chap.  IV. 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — GNOSTICISM  111 

which  does  this  is  capable  of  development  in  two  opposite 
directions.  It  was  so  with  the  Gnostics.  Some  of  them 
in  all  good  faith  strove  to  suppress  the  sensuous  element, 
and  with  that  view  inculcated  a  strict  asceticism.  Others 
regarded  the  sensuous  element  as  indifferent, — it  did  not 
affect  the  real  man,  the  spiritual  being ;  and  on  this  line 
of  thought  they  became  libertine,  or  at  least  secular  and 
careless.  In  general,  the  orthodox  could  not  but  approve 
of  the  asceticism  of  the  strict  Gnostics,  as  far  as  it  went. 
But  the  dualistic  basis  on  which  they  placed  it  was  per- 
emptorily challenged  and  condemned.^ 

The  leading  Gnostic  schools  must  now  be  described. 
Cerinthus  has  already  been  mentioned.  The  main  article 
Df  his  teaching,  so  far  as  known  to  us,  was  the  assertion 
that  the  creation  of  the  world  was  due  to  certain  inferior 
angels.  Speculations  as  to  the  agency  of  angels  in  creation 
had  been  current  among  the  Jews.  But  the  Gnostic  type 
of  the  thinking  of  Cerinthus  is  fixed  by  this,  that  with 
him  these  angels  are  ignorant  of  the  supreme  God,  and 
suppose  themselves  to  be  the  highest  existences. 

Carpocrates  and  Epiphanes  had  no  great  influence. 
Their  interest  lies  in  the  circumstance  that  a  more  Greek 
and  a  less  Oriental  character  attaches  to  their  scheme.  It 
is  energetically  Antinomian.  The  "  law  of  ordinances,"  the 
narrow  and  negative  rule  of  the  lower  powers,  was  rejected 
by  Christ  in  the  strength  of  His  knowledge  of  a  higher 
world ;  and  in  rejecting  it,  he  found  His  own  emancipation 
and  became  the  Saviour  of  others.  In  taking  this  attitude, 
however,  towards  the  Jewish  law,  Carpocrates  and  his  son 
took  the  same  attitude,  apparently,  towards  all  restrictions 
upon  human  life  and  freedom.  If  they  tried  to  restrain 
their  own  principle  and  to  reconcile  it  with  some  view  of 
regulated  life,  we  do  not  know  how  this  was  attempted. 

The  name  Ophites  may  be  taken  as  designating  a  con- 

^  There  was  a  ceremonial  and  ritual  side  of  Gnosticism,  which  is  believed 
by  some  writers  to  have  powerfully  influenced  the  eventual  development  of 
the  same  element  in  the  great  Church.  But  it  is  difficult  to  produce  con- 
clusive proof.     See  Loofs,  Leitfaden^  p.  73. 


112       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

siderable  body  of  Gnostics,  whose  thinking  seems  never 
to  have  found  an  authoritative  expositor;  consequently,  it 
varied  a  good  deal.  But  they  so  far  had  a  common  char- 
acter and  deserved  a  common  name,  because  they  drew  into 
their  scheme  a  widespread  fancy  of  the  ancient  world, 
according  to  which  the  serpent  form  embodies  or  represents 
both  the  Agathodaemon  and  the  Kakoda3mon ;  with  this 
they  combined  speculations  suggested  by  the  serpent  of  the 
temptation  (Gen.  iii.)  and  the  brazen  serpent  of  Moses. 
As  the  opponent  of  the  Old  Testament  God,  the  serpent 
could  be  regarded  as  a  good  principle  that  bestows  wisdom ; 
yet  in  some  theories  a  serpent  form  appears  also  as  em- 
bodying a  lower  and  evil  principle  which  has  to  be  over- 
come. Among  the  Ophites  may  be  reckoned  the  Naassenes, 
the  Peratics,  the  Sethians,  and  the  followers  of  Justus. 

A  Gnostic  scheme  described  by  Irenseus  {Ref.  i.  30.  1  f.) 
is  often  ranked  as  Ophite  in  its  affinities.  This  scheme 
affirms  the  existence  of  an  original  Light — the  Father  of  all 
— also  called  the  First  Man ;  an  Emanation,  who  is  the  second 
man ;  a  third,  the  Holy  Spirit,  conceived  as  feminine,  who  is 
the  first  woman ;  and  a  fourth,  son  of  the  first  woman,  who 
is  Christ.  These  four  form  the  true  Ecclesia — the  Eternal 
Church.  But  another  child  of  the  first  woman  descends  into 
the  depths,  becomes  entangled  in  matter,  and  sets  agoing  the 
history  of  the  lower  world.  Here  a  presiding  Hebdomad  of 
planetary  spirits  is  developed,  with  Jaldabaoth,^  the  God  of 
the  Law,  at  the  head  of  it,  and  a  counter  Hebdomad  of  lower 
quality  presided  over  by  Naas  in  snake  form.  The  Demiurge 
himself,  too,  is  not  reconcilable  to  the  supreme  God,  and  he 
and  his  kingdom  eventually  fade  away. 

Types  of  Gnosticism  which  appear  to  be  more  distinct 
in  themselves,  and  to  bear  clearer  tokens  of  originating 
in  single  minds  of  some  force,  are  those  of  Saturninus, 
Basilides,  and  Valentinus. 

Saturninus  holds  a  pretty  early  place  in  the  Gnostic 
chronology — perhaps  as  early  as  the  age  of  Trajan.  His 
system  is  more  simple,  perhaps  we  should  rather  say  more 
»ChUd  of  Chaos. 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — GNOSTICISM  113 

crude,  in  some  of  its  aspects,  and  the  Oriental  elements 
are  more  prominent  than  in  the  schemes  of  Basilides  and 
Valentinus. 

According  to  Saturninus,^  the  supreme  God  has  created 
various  angels  and  powers.  Seven  of  these  (planetary 
spirits  ?),  of  whom  the  God  of  Judaism  is  one,  have  made 
this  lower  world.  Man  is  their  creature — created  after  an 
"image"  which  gleamed  out  upon  the  angels  from  the 
supreme  God,  but  which  they  could  not  retain.  Man  as 
made  by  them  is  a  failure ;  but  God  pities  him  as  one 
made  in  His  image,  and  sends  out  a  spark  of  life,  by  means 
of  which  man  accomplishes  his  earthly  existence ;  but  he 
returns  to  God  at  death.  Satan  is  opposed  to  the  world- 
creating  angels,  and  under  the  influence  of  the  Daemons  an 
evil  race  of  men  arise,  over  against  the  good  who  possess 
the  divine  spark  from  on  high.  Marriage  and,  according 
to  some,  the  use  of  animal  food  are  due  to  the  influence 
of  Daemons.  God  has  sent  Christ,  who  is  incorporeal  and 
invisible,  to  free  those  who  believe  in  Him  (those  who 
possess  the  divine  spark)  from  the  Daemons. 

Under  the  name  of  Basilides  *  two  distinguishable  systems 
are  described — one  by  Irenaeus  (i.  23),  one  by  Hippolytus 
{Ref.  vii.  14  f.)  supported  by  Clement  of  Alexandria. 
The  latter  is  generally  considered  to  be  the  more  authentic. 
The  former  resembles  closely  the  scheme  of  Saturninus :  only, 
Basilides  is  said  to  have  postulated  a  development  of  five 
aeons  from  the  supreme  God,  and  to  have  increased  the 
number  of  the  spirits  from  the  seven  of  Saturninus  to  365. 
To  the  last  seven  of  these  the  creation  of  the  visible  world 
is  ascribed.  The  first  of  the  aeons  is  sent  as  Christ,  to 
vanquish  the  powers  of  the  lower  world.  His  appear- 
ance is  docetic,  and  Simon  of  Cyrene  is  crucified  in  his 
room. 

But  the  Basilides  of  Hippolytus  and  Clement  has  ascribed 
to  him  a  more  remarkable  speculation.     It  is  not  a  system 

^  Or  Saturnilus. 

*  Perhaps  in  the  reign  of  Hadrian  (A.D.  117-138).     He  claimed  to  have 
been  instructed  by  Glaueias,  a  companion  of  the  Apostle  Peter. 
8 


114  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

of  development  downwards,  but  after  the  first  stage  one  of 
evolution  and  ascent. 

He  begins  with  an  antithesis  which  may  be  denoted  as 
that  of  the  Potential  and  the  Actual.  God  is  the  non- 
existent.^ In  some  way  for  which  we  can  find  no  analogy, 
He  creates  a  world,  in  the  form  of  a  world-seed  (Travo-irep/jLLa), 
All  that  is  or  can  be  is  in  it,  undefined  and  mixed.  From 
this  point  a  process  of  evolution  sets  in, — each  element  is 
attracted  upwards,  and  has  an  inherent  nisus  that  way ;  so 
the  elements  sort  themselves  out,  till  each  thing  is  found 
at  last  in  its  own  distinct  and  appropriate  place. 

In  the  world-seed  are  three  Sonships,  all  of  one 
essence  with  the  non-existent  God,  and  all  of  which 
strive  upwards  towards  His  transcendent  beauty  and  good- 
ness. The  first  Sonship^  is  the  most  subtle  element;  it 
severs  itself  from  the  world  mixture  and  rises  with  the 
speed  of  thought  to  the  non-existent  God.  The  second 
Sonship — less  subtle — needs  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and,  each  helping  each,  they  reach  only  to  the  border  of 
the  non-existent  God  and  the  first  Sonship ;  this,  therefore, 
is  a  state  still  short  of  the  supreme  ineffable  blessedness, 
but  near  it  —  a  state  in  which  an  "  odour "  of  Sonship 
abides.  The  Spirit  now  becomes  the  limitary  spirit  be- 
tween the  mundane  and  the  supramundane.  The  third 
Sonship  remains  as  yet  below,  needing  purification,  receiv- 
ing benefit  and  imparting  it.  Now  comes  the  development 
of  the  world.  First  the  great  Archon,  the  world  prince, 
rises  to  the  firmament  and  forms  the  visible  world.  He  does 
not  know  that  there  exists  one  greater  than  himself.  Out 
of  the  world -seed  he  begets  himself  a  son  greater  and 
wiser  than  himself,  admires  his  beauty,  and  sets  him  at 
his  right  hand.  His  seat  is  conceived  to  be  above  the 
seven  planetary  spheres, — therefore  it  is  the  Ogdoad.  A 
second  archon  then  arises,  and  finds  his  place  in  the 
Hebdomad,  the  last  of  the  planetary  spheres ;  and  he  also 

^  The  strongest  expression  of  God's  remoteness  from  all  we  can  conceive  as 
existence — beyond  even  the  Ideal. 
3  The  pure  Ideal  ? 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES GNOSTICISM  115 

begets  a  son  greater  than  himself.  How  far  Basilides  and 
his  followers  imagined  further  developments  analogous  to 
these  to  have  taken  place  in  the  constitution  of  the 
world,  is  not  clear.  But  supposing  the  world  to  have 
taken  shape,  the  main  interest  attaches  to  the  redemption 
of  the  third  Sonship,  which  still  remains  in  the  Travairepfiia 
or  in  the  lower  world.  This  third  Sonship  remains  there, 
"in  order  to  do  good  and  to  receive  good"; — to  do  good, 
apparently  by  exerting  influence  on  creatures  of  lower 
element,  and  to  receive  good  in  ways  not  made  very 
clear,  but  probably  connected  with  effort  and  discipline. 
But  it,  too,  must  rise  at  last  to  its  proper  place. 
This  takes  place  by  the  gospel — which  passes  through  all 
the  higher  spheres,  not  by  a  real  descent  of  any  Saviour, 
but  as  an  energy — compared  to  a  flash  of  fire  which 
even  from  a  distance  produces  its  effect.  This  travels 
through  the  worlds  and  reaches  the  great  Archon,  whose  son 
(here  beginning  to  be  spoken  of  as  Christ),  sitting  by  Him, 
first  apprehends  its  meaning  and  opens  it  to  the  Archon — 
who  is  awed  and  converted.  The  same  process  repeats 
itself  in  the  Hebdomad :  and,  finally,  the  influence  reaches 
Jesus  the  Son  of  Mary.  Through  its  illumination,  the 
purification  and  elevation  of  the  third  Sonship  sets  in. 
Jesus  Himself  yields  up  the  various  elements  of  His  per- 
sonality to  their  proper  spheres, — some  remaining  in  the 
corporeal  world,  some  mounting  to  the  Hebdomad  and 
Ogdoad,  but  the  highest — the  proper  Sonship — rises  up 
above  all  these.  This  last  Sonship,  indeed,  proves  to  be 
the  purest  and  most  powerful,  and  stimulated  by  the  light 
from  on  high  rises  of  itself  to  the  region  of  supreme  good. 
So  He  inaugurates  the  general  purification  and  distribution 
by  which  everything  comes  to  its  proper  place. 

Finally,  the  world  from  which  the  three  Sonships  have 
departed  is  not  abolished,  as  in  other  schemes,  but  remains 
in  peace.  Everything  has  come  to  its  own  place;  and, 
to  maintain  the  adjustment,  a  great  ignorance  is  poured 
out  upon  all  stages  of  the  Kosmos,  so  that  no  element 
may  be  tempted  to  aspire  beyond  its  proper  limits. 


116       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

On  this  system  the  third  Sonship  represents  the  pneu- 
matic element  as  it  exists  in  man,  or  possibly  also  in  higher 
beings  next  of  kin  to  man. 

Valentinus  formed  the  most  popular  and  attractive  of 
Gnostic  systems.  He  was  at  Eome  about  140 — ^and  his 
peculiar  teaching  cannot  be  of  later  date.  His  system 
begins  with  thirty  ^ons  which  successively  emanate  from 
the  supreme  God,  in  pairs  male  and  female.  One  of  these 
^ons,  Sophia,  falls  from  the  Pleroma — and  brings  forth 
Christ,  who  frees  Himself  from  all  taint  of  mortality  and 
hastens  back  to  the  Pleroma.  Further,  the  fallen  ^on 
brings  forth  the  Demiurge,  and  also  a  being,  the  left  or 
sinister  one,  who  presides  over  the  sheer  material,  as  the 
Demiurge  does  over  the  psychic  element.  These  two  in- 
fluence this  lower  world.  Also,  one  Horos  separates  the 
first  ^on,  Bythos,  from  the  other  ^ons,  and  another 
separates  the  Sophia  from  the  Pleroma.  In  the  develop- 
ment given  to  Valentinianism  by  Ptolemaeus,  a  higher  and 
a  lower  Sophia  find  their  place,  the  latter  being  only  a 
thought  or  dream  of  the  former;  and  Christ  and  Jesus 
(who  are  distinguished  from  one  another)  are  conceived 
as  eminently  derived  from  the  strength  and  glory  of  the 
Pleroma.  The  scheme  of  Valentinus  is  brightened  by 
touches  of  poetry  and  romance.  While  it  embodies,  like  the 
other  versions  of  Gnosticism,  a  theory  of  the  world  and  its 
forces,  it  seems,  more  than  any  of  them,  to  reflect  in  a 
measure  the  sentiment  and  the  pathos  of  human  experience.^ 

^  Tatian,  disciple  of  Justin  and  Apologist,  afterwards  an  Encratite,  is  said 
to  have  cherished  Gnostic  notions  about  the  material  world  and  about  Mona 
(latter  half  of  second  century) ;  and  Bardesanea  of  Edessa  (a.d.  154-230) 
believed  in  Syzygies  of  ^ons,  which  were  alluded  to  in  his  hymns.  Both 
of  these  continued  to  hold  relation  to  the  life  of  the  Church.  There 
were  forms  of  Gnosticism  which  made  large  use  of  magical  formulae,  and 
embodied  ideas  in  connection  with  them  which  it  is  usual  to  refer  to  the 
old  religion  of  Babylon.  Elements  of  that  kind  invaded  the  West  with 
great  force  during  the  second  century.  Some  Gnostics  provided  sets  of 
formulae,  which,  being  learned  by  the  disciple  during  life,  would  prove 
available  after  death  to  guarantee  him  against  hostile  powers,  in  making 
his  perilous  way  through  different  regions  of  existence  up  to  the  Pleroma, 
See  Anz,  Texte  u.  Unters.  xv.  4,  and  Schmidt,  Texte  u,  Unters,  viii.  1,  2> 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — GNOSTICISM  117 

We  have  still  to  speak  of  Marcion.  But  before  we 
leave  the  theories  that  have  been  before  us,  the  question 
may  be  put  by  readers,  "Where  did  the  temptation  to 
Gnosticism  lie  ?  How  should  speculations  so  conjectural, 
theories  of  the  universe  so  fantastic,  be  seriously  meant 
and  seriously  entertained  ?  Why  should  one  theory  be 
preferred  to  another ;  and  why  lay  stress  on  any  of  them, 
whether  you  call  them  Gnosis,  knowledge,  conjecture,  or 
any  other  name  ? " 

It  is  difficult,  no  doubt,  to  sympathise  so  far  as  to 
understand.  But  we  may  remember  that  for  ages  salva- 
tion by  knowledge  was  the  only  kind  of  salvation  which 
thoughtful  men  had  been  able  to  plan,  or  had  found  it 
hopeful  to  attempt.  "Know  yourself,"  and  know  your 
world:  then,  under  the  influence  of  that  knowledge,  you 
may  be  expected  to  act  wisely,  which  is  as  much  as  to 
say,  act  rightly.  That  way  of  thinking  was  carried  out  in 
Christianity  by  many  besides  the  Gnostics.  Now  Chris- 
tianity seemed  to  reveal  forces  and  relations  for  which 
none  of  the  systems  of  Greek  wisdom  could  make  room. 
And  to  the  Gnostics  it  seemed  to  carry  suggestions  which 
must  be  reduced  to  an  intelligible  scheme  of  the  world, 
if  men  were  to  have  an  order  of  conceptions  in  their 
minds,  under  the  influence  of  which  a  new  outlook  and  a 
new  wisdom  should  arise.  The  bare  statements  of  the 
creed  might  be  enough  for  merely  practical  people;  but 
true  children  of  light  must  live  by  theory. 

Gnosticism  was,  after  all,  only  an  extreme  case  of  a 
general  tendency.  It  was  a  very  general  thought  that 
the  divine  excellency  of  Christianity  must  then  be  ours 
when  we  find  it  rising  upon  the  soul  as  a  deep,  pure, 
comprehensive,  wonderful  knowledge.  Before  Gnosticism, 
around  it,  after  it,  we  must  conceive  this  mood  existing 
as  a  general  diffused  tendency,  operating  in  very  many 
influential  minds,  and  very  strong  among  Christians.  The 
author  of  the  Epistle  ascribed  to  Barnabas,  Justin  Martyr, 
Clement,  Origen,  are  all  conspicuous  instances. 

For    most    people    the    greatest    difficulty    in    taking 


118       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

Gnosticism  seriously  is  the  introduction  of  the  lists  of 
^ons,  those  shadowy  personages,  higher  and  lower,  inter- 
posed between  the  supreme  God  and  the  world  with  which 
men  are  acquainted.  There  is  nothing  like  this  mob  of 
metaphysical  identities  in  Greek  philosophy:  and  even 
admitting  that  the  conception  in  general  of  such  inter- 
mediate existences  might  be  entertained,  what  could  possibly 
set  men  on  to  number  them  and  name  them,  when  the  very 
attempt  might  seem  to  be  a  declaration  to  all  the  world, 
that  those  who  did  so  were  indifferent  to  the  distinction 
between  fact  and  fiction  ? 

One  can  only  say,  that  in  accounting  for  a  mixed 
world,  it  might  seem  an  ease  to  thought  to  postulate  a 
variety  of  principles,  inferior  to  God,  but  above  and  before 
the  world,  to  which  the  various  phases  of  being,  and  the 
various  grades  of  good  and  evil,  could  be  referred.  In 
Plato's  time  it  had  been  felt  sufficient  to  think  of  a  world 
of  ideas  in  the  divine  mind  which  impress  themselves  more 
or  less  successfully  on  the  Hyle — the  matter  which  is  the 
basis  of  the  world  we  know.  For  the  Gnostic  that  was 
not  sufficient;  for,  first,  he  had  a  darker  sense  than  the 
early  Greek  thinkers  of  the  energy  of  evil  in  the  world, 
as  an  adverse  force  to  the  divine  ideals ;  and,  secondly, 
Christianity  had  taught  him  to  conceive  the  world  as 
embodying  a  history,  a  conflict,  and  a  redemptive  crisis. 
That  seemed  to  import  ideas  which  are  also  forces — are, 
indeed,  persons.  At  this  point  what  he  believed  of  the 
interposition  of  Christ  had  also  much  to  do  with  fixing 
the  character  of  the  Gnostic  thought.  Christ  was  a  person. 
On  the  same  type  the  world  might  be  conceived  as  ener- 
gised by  a  background  of  dim  personalities.  From  among 
these  Christ  interposes ;  only  He  is  (at  least  in  the  more 
thoughtful  Gnostic  systems)  the  most  divine,  illustrious, 
and  victorious  of  them  all. 

The  second  century  was  a  time  in  which  all  over  the 
Gentile  world,  and  among  its  best  thinkers,  the  tendency 
to  explain  the  world  by  the  assumption  of  manifold  beings, 
less  than  God  and  more  than  man,  was  extremely  preva- 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES MARCION  119 

leut.^  The  Gnostics  were  too  Christian  to  allow  the 
heathen  gods — tlie  "  dcemons  " — to  occupy  this  place,  and 
they  filled  it  with  ^ons.  We  need  not  suppose,  however, 
that  they  ascribed  any  rigorous  certainty  to  the  detailed 
naming  and  numbering  of  .^ons.  In  the  case  of  each 
system  those  details  represented  the  number  and  character 
of  distinct  principles  which  the  Gnostic's  survey  of  the 
world  had  led  him  to  assume;  but  even  in  the  same 
school,  the  disciples  did  not  hesitate  to  vary  such  details. 
Lastly,  we  must  take  it  that  we  know  Gnosticism  mainly 
through  unsympathetic  reporters.  One  or  two  Gnostic  tracts 
survive,  indeed,  to  show  that  Gnosticism  could  be  as  dreary 
and  as  absurd  as  any  page  of  Irenseus  or  of  Epiphanius 
represents  it.  But  there  were  forms  of  Gnosticism  round 
which  the  common  Christian  interests  continued  to  cling, 
and  which  had  perhaps  some  inspiration  not  altogether 
estranged  from  Christian  faith  and  love.^  In  these  more 
Christian  forms  the  error  could  be  more  insidious ;  perhaps 
the  wilder  forms  were  more  fascinating  to  weak  peopla 

Makcion 

Marcion  is  commonly  associated  with  the  Gnostics;  he 
had,  in  fact,  adopted  some  of  their  most  characteristic  posi- 
tions. He  rejected  the  Old  Testament,  and  he  distinguished 
the  God  of  the  Old  Testament,  who  is  the  Creator  of  our 
world,  from  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
But  the  Gnostic  elements  of  his  teaching  have  no  special 
importance :  they  are  not  very  original,  and  are  not  con- 
sistently worked  out.  The  moving  forces  which  determined 
his  position  came  from  another  quarter.  He  furnishes, 
therefore,  a  distinct  illustration  of  the  times,  and  of  the 
influences  then  at  work  in  the  world. 

Marcion  came  from  Sinope  in  Pontus,  where  his  father, 

*  Friedlander,  iii.  485. 

*  As  expounded,  for  example,  by  Ptolemaeus  {ante,  p.  108,  note),  Heracleon 
(Fragments  in  Clement  and  Origen),  Apelles  (the  follower  of  Marcion),  and 
Bardesanes. 


120       THE  ANCIEKT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

according  to  some  authorities,  was  a  bishop.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  himself  connected  in  some  way  with  shipping, 
and  appears  to  have  possessed  means.  It  is  also  said  that 
before  he  left  the  East  he  spent  some  time  in  ascetic  retire- 
ment. Later  writers  say  that  he  departed  from  Sinope 
under  scandal  on  account  of  some  immorality ;  but  neither 
Irengeus  nor  Tertullian,  though  they  both  dislike  the  man 
extremely,  allege  anything  of  this  kind.  Marcion's  rule  of 
life  was  severe,  and  neither  of  these  writers  suggests  that 
his  own  conduct  had  been  inconsistent  with  it.  It  is  of 
Marcion  the  story  is  told  that  meeting  Polycarp  of  Smyrna 
in  Eome,  whom  perhaps  he  may  have  seen  previously  in 
the  East,  he  asked  Polycarp,  "  Dost  thou  know  me  ? "  and 
received  the  reply,  "  I  recognise  thee  for  the  firstborn  of 
Satan." 

Probably  it  was  not  far  from  the  year  140  that  Marcion 
first  appeared  in  Eome.  By  150,  about  which  time  Justin 
Martyr's  first  Apology  was  written,  many  had  joined  him ; 
for  Justin  says,  "  There  is  Marcion,  a  man  of  Pontus,  who  is 
even  at  this  day  alive,  and  teaches  his  disciples  to  believe  in 
some  god  greater  than  the  creator ;  and  he,  by  the  aid  of  devils, 
has  caused  many  of  every  nation  to  speak  blasphemously,  and 
to  deny  the  God  of  this  universe,  and  to  assert  that  some  other 
being,  greater  than  He,  has  done  greater  works."  Again,  he 
says,  "  As  we  have  said,  the  daemons  put  forward  Marcion  of 
Pontus,  who  is  even  now  teaching  men  to  deny  that  God  is 
maker  of  all  things  in  Heaven  and  Earth,  and  that  the  Christ 
predicted  by  the  Prophets,  is  His  Son.  And  this  man  many 
have  believed,  as  if  he  alone  knew  the  truth.  And  they 
laugh  at  us,  though  they  can  produce  no  proof,  but  are 
carried  away  irrationally,  as  lambs  by  a  wolf."  Marcion's 
system  spread  rapidly,  not  as  a  mere  opinion,  but  as  em- 
bodied in  a  regular  church,  organised  over  against  the 
Catholic ;  and  this  church  proved  durable,  for  Marcionites 
were  still  numerous  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries.  After 
the  emperors  became  Christian,  these  dissidents  had  to 
endure  Christian  persecution,  as  before  they  had  endured 
pagan.     Nor   did  Marcion    purchase  adherents  by  conces- 


98-180]  THE  HERESIES — MARCION  121 

sions ;  he  enforced  a  stern  discipline,  and  exacted  strenuous 
self-deniaL 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Christian  writers  speak  bitterly 
of  a  man  who  held  Marcion's  views,  and  taught  them  so 
successfully.  And  yet  there  is  much  reason  to  believe  that 
Marcion*s  impressions  were  fundamentally  Christian.  He 
seems  to  have  been  one  of  those  intense  natures  in  whose 
case  one  aspect  of  things  takes  such  vehement  possession  as 
to  exclude  all  complementary  or  compensating  considera- 
tions. Certain  aspects  of  Christianity  seemed  to  reveal 
themselves  to  him  as  evidently  divine,  worthy  to  be  for 
ever  asserted  and  enforced ;  and  the  religious  value  of  these 
impressions  regulated  everything  else.  He  found  it  difficult 
to  believe  that  others  could  resist  the  views  which  came  home 
so  forcibly  to  himself.  When  he  came  to  Eome,  he  held 
conferences  with  the  presbyters :  and  to  the  end  there  are 
indications  that  he  had  not  ceased  to  think  it  possible  the 
great  Church  might  be  reconciled  to  his  view. 

Marcion  believed  that  he  had  discovered  the  secret  of 
Paul: — an  open  secret,  for  to  him  Paul's  meaning  was 
plain ;  yet  a  secret,  for  Paul  seemed  to  be  universally  mis- 
understood. This  discovery  was  not  merely  a  discovery  of 
the  Pauline  way  of  thinking,  but  at  the  same  time,  as 
Marcion  felt,  an  unveiling  of  the  divine  genius  of  the  gospel. 
According  to  Paul,  the  gospel  was  first  and  essentially  a 
revelation  of  grace — of  an  amazing  divine  goodwill — which 
delights  in  saving  and  enriching  those  who  have  no  claim 
upon  it.  This  breaks  out  in  the  gospel  as  something  hidden 
from  ages  and  generations,  but  now  made  manifest.  There- 
fore, the  inspiring  principle  at  the  bottom  of  all  is  faith,  con- 
ceived as  trust  in  the  benignity  of  grace.  In  one  view  this  does 
not  make  practical  Christianity  an  easier  business ;  it  does  not 
open  to  us  a  smooth  road.  The  love  that  saves  inculcates 
the  rejection  of  much  that  the  flesh  desires,  and  sets  us  on  to 
seek  our  portion  in  regions  which  the  flesh  dreads  to  enter. 
If  this  involved  hardships,  these  were  nothing  in  the 
light  of  what  was  believed  concerning  the  divine  benefits 
present  and  future.     The  hardships  in  the  case  of  the  Mar- 


122       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

cionites  were  certainly  not  small.  They  shared  the  persecu- 
tions of  the  Catholic  Christians,  often  enduring  martyrdom 
with  equal  fidelity ;  they  accepted  a  rule  of  life  which  in- 
volved many  privations ;  and  they  experienced,  at  the  same 
time,  enmity  and  repudiation  at  the  hands  of  other  Chris- 
tians. Marcion  addresses  his  followers  as  "  companions  in 
distress  and  in  reproach." 

Marcion  regarded  Christ  as  the  revealer  of  this  divine 
grace  and  goodwill,  and  perhaps  (owning  no  personal  dis- 
tinction) he  identified  Christ  with  the  good  God  Himself. 
Following  the  Apostle  Paul,  he  owns  a  special  virtue  in 
the  crucifixion,  as  the  ransom  by  means  of  which  the  divine 
goodwill  becomes  conclusively  effectual;  and  apparently 
emphasis  continued  to  be  laid  on  this,  as  the  central 
thing,  among  his  followers.  It  is  a  doctrine  not  easily 
reconciled  with  some  other  parts  of  Marcion's  teaching. 
But,  as  we  have  said,  views  which  have  vividly  come  home 
to  him  are  strongly  affirmed,  without  much  care  to  smooth 
out  inconsistencies. 

So  far,  one  does  not  see  why  a  collision  should  arise 
between  Marcion  and  the  Church.  The  Church  received 
all  the  Pauline  forms  of  statement  upon  which  Marcion 
laid  so  much  stress.  He  might  feel,  indeed,  that  while 
his  mind  thrilled  to  the  wonderfulness  and  the  newness  of 
all  this,  the  Church  in  general  apprehended  it  languidly, 
and  failed  to  give  it  due  effect.  Yet,  if  that  were  all,  it 
would  hardly  explain  the  breach  which  followed. 

But  Marcion's  vivid  appreciation  of  the  teaching  of 
Paul  expressed  itself  in  a  vivid  realisation  of  the  contrast 
it  presented  to  the  current  Christianity.  Christ  and  Chris- 
tianity, as  described  by  the  apostle,  seemed  to  Marcion  to 
stand  in  the  sharpest  opposition  to  the  Old  Testament  and 
to  Judaism.  The  one  was  grace,  the  other  was  law.  The 
one  wrought  by  inward  attraction  and  by  trust,  the  other 
by  external  authority  and  constraint.  The  one  aimed  at 
inward  freedom  and  an  inward  goodness  finally  made  per- 
fect, the  other  was  shut  up  in  earthly  conditions  and 
earthly  prospects.      Had    not    Paul   himself   marked   this 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — MARCION  123 

contrast  ?  Had  he  not  shown  what  the  religion  of  the  law 
is,  and  what  it  comes  to,  and  what  a  weary  yoke  it  im- 
poses ?  Had  he  not  brought  out  over  against  it  the 
spirituality  and  liberty  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  ? 

The  Church  held  that  all  these  things  were,  after  all, 
consistent.  You  could  take  a  view  that  reconciled  them 
as  terms  in  one  series:  nay,  the  Old  Testament  could  be 
interpreted  so  as  to  teach  what  the  New  taught,  and  the 
New  could  be  taken  as  only  a  plainer  utterance  of  the 
Old.  But  this  way  of  huddling  things  up  seemed  to 
Marcion  to  amount  simply  to  evacuating  the  glory  of 
Christianity.  At  all  events,  it  was  incredible  that  the 
God  of  grace,  the  author  of  the  gospel,  should  have  gone 
on  for  hundreds  and  thousands  of  years,  in  the  track 
of  Jewish  history,  commanding,  threatening,  punishing, 
inculcating  the  yoke  of  ordinances,  administering  elements 
of  this  world,  making  nothing  perfect.  To  associate  this 
with  the  gospel  was  to  shut  one's  eyes  to  that  in  the 
second  which  was  incompatible  with  the  first.  And  then, 
as  Marcion  said  to  the  orthodox,  "  If  your  system  is  the 
true  one,  what  that  is  new  has  Christ  brought  ?  Has  he 
come  only  to  enforce  what,  according  to  you,  was  in  the 
world  long  before  ? " 

No  doubt,  as  the  authoritative  documents  stood,  even  as 
the  Pauline  epistles  stood,  it  might  seem  that  this  harmonis- 
ing of  old  and  new  had  been  sanctioned  and  accepted  from 
the  beginning.  But  to  Marcion  that  seemed  impossible  ;  and 
remarkable  passages  in  the  Pauline  epistles  plainly  enough 
brought  out  the  weakness  and  earthliness  of  Judaism,  the 
poverty  and  fruitlessness  of  the  law.  Did  not  these  passages 
give  the  clue  to  the  apostle's  real  and  central  view  ? 

The  reform  Christianity  needed  was  to  force  home  on 
men's  minds  this  great  contrast.  But  Marcion  could  not 
conceal  from  himself  that  the  Church's  error,  if  it  was  an 
error,  did  not  date  from  yesterday.  It  was  rooted  in  her 
tradition ;  it  ran  through  all  that  passed  for  apostolic 
literature ;  it  seemed  to  be  as  old  as  the  apostles.  Yes, 
but  did  not   some  Pauline   sayings    prove    that  this   was 


124       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLtC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

exactly  what  Paul  himself  had  found  to  be  the  case  ?  He, 
too,  could  not  agree  with  the  elder  apostles.  The  explana- 
tion, after  all,  was  just  this,  that  the  apostles  themselves 
had  mistaken  Christ ;  they  had  succumbed  to  the  influence 
of  those  tendencies  which  are  apt  to  prevail  over  Jews. 
Their  Lord's  teaching  was  in  their  minds  biassed  and  mis- 
represented. This  was  what  made  it  needful  that  a  new 
revelation  should  be  made  to  Saul  of  Tarsus,  in  order  that 
the  true  scope  of  Christ's  mission  and  work  might  be  made 
clear.  And  yet  even  after  Paul  had  done  his  work,  the 
inveterate  prejudice  had  prevailed;  it  had  corrupted  the 
record  even  of  his  teaching.  The  Gospels  had  been  polluted 
with  the  evil  leaven ;  and  the  very  epistles  of  Paul  had  here 
and  there  been  tampered  with.  A  real  reform  must  go  deep ; 
it  must  deal  with  the  Christian  teaching  from  the  beginning. 
Now,  if  the  Old  Testament  was  to  be  thus  resolutely 
contrasted  with  the  religion  of  Christ,  what  view  was  to  be 
taken  of  it?  Either  it  was  a  sheer  self-deception  from 
first  to  last, — a  view  which  for  many  reasons  was  not 
likely  to  seem  either  probable  or  acceptable  to  Marcion, — 
or  it  was  the  manifestation,  the  revelation,  of  a  different 
God.  This  God  is  severely  strict — just  in  that  sense;  of 
abundant  law,  regulation,  prohibition;  always  employing 
force  and  penalty.  That  need  not  hinder  many  of  his 
rules  being  good  as  far  as  they  go.  This  Being  proclaims 
himself  to  be  the  God  of  creation,  and  therefore  no  doubt 
he  is  so.^  Here  Marcion  is  seen,  like  the  other  Gnostics, 
giving  up  this  world  without  reluctance  to  the  "just" 
God,  whom  he  distinguishes  from  the  good  one.  It  was 
the  common  sentiment  of  meditative  men  in  that  time  to 
regard  the  material  world  as  something  mainly  to  be  sur- 
mounted and  got  rid  of.  But  in  this  he  differs  remarkably 
from  the  Gnostics,  that,  taking  the  Old  Testament  account 
as  he  found  it,  he  supposed  human  souls  as  well  as  bodies 
to  originate  in  the  creative  act  of  the  just  God.  The 
Gnostics    usually    maintained   that   something    in    men,   a 

^  Various  things  suggest  that  Marcion  took  the  apostolic  references  to  the 
Old  Testament  as  establishing  the  truth  of  its  historical  statements. 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — MARCION  125 

distinct  and  distinguishable  something  in  the  more  select 
men,  was  derived,  not  from  the  Demiurge,  but  from  a 
higher  source.  Marcion  does  not  appear  to  have  followed 
in  this  track.  As  men  we  are  wholly  the  creatures  of  the 
God  of  the  Old  Testament;  and  under  his  government  we 
find  ourselves  subjected  to  hard  conditions  which  we  cannot 
meet,  and  are  always  on  the  verge  of  disappointment  and 
of  punishment. 

Marcion,  as  has  been  said,  recognised  the  Old  Testament 
as  a  truthful  book.  For  the  same  reason  he  believed  its 
promises;  and  therefore  he  expected  the  coming  of  the 
promised  Messiah  of  the  Old  Testament,  who  should  set  up 
an  earthly  kingdom,  and  establish  it  by  force. 

Having  made  up  his  mind  to  fix  the  contrast  between 
Christianity  and  Judaism  in  this  startling  form,  Marcion 
carries  out  the  scheme  with  a  certain  wilfulness  and 
animosity.  The  good  God,  unknown  before,  resolves  at 
length  to  interpose  and  rescue  the  unhappy  subjects  of  the 
"just"  God  from  his  sway.  Suddenly,  therefore,  in  the 
fifteenth  year  of  Tiberius,  Christ  appears  at  Capernaum 
(Luke  iv.  31).  His  preaching  is  rejected  by  those  who  have 
succeeded  in  some  degree  in  commending  themselves  to  the 
just  God  ;  they  hope  that  they  have  reached  his  standard 
of  righteousness,  or,  at  anyrate,  they  are  filled  with  defer- 
ence for  his  law.  But  those  who  are  sinners  and  trans- 
gressors lie  far  more  open  to  the  new  message,  and  become 
partakers  of  the  new  kingdom.  So  also  when  Christ,  after 
His  crucifixion,  appears  in  the  place  of  departed  souls  to 
offer  them  His  benefits,  those  who  were  counted  pious 
under  the  Old  Testament  do  not  respond.  They  do  not 
want  to  throw  away  their  position  with  the  God  whose 
favour  they  have  gained,  and  they  fear  that  Christ's 
mission  may  be  a  device  of  his  to  try,  and  even  to 
ensnare  them.  They  therefore  reject  the  benefit  intended 
for  them ;  while  the  rebels  of  the  Old  Testament,  such  as 
Cain,  embrace  the  offer,  and  enter  Christ's  kingdom.  It 
was  not  necessary  to  Marcion's  scheme  to  imagine  all  this ; 
and  it  must  pass  mainly  as  a  brusque  and  audacious  way 


126       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

of  underscoring  the  points  in  his  scheme  which  were  most 
adapted  to  affront  both  Jewish  and  Catholic  piety.  In 
the  end,  the  unbelievers  are  left  to  the  consequences  of 
unbelief:  the  goodness  of  the  good  God  is  not  construed 
to  the  effect  of  disposing  Him  to  save  all.  The  incon- 
sistency between  His  character,  as  Marcion  himself  repre- 
sents it,  and  the  ruin  which  falls  on  unbelievers,  is  got  over 
(apparently  as  an  afterthought)  by  various  versions  of  the 
explanation  that  unbelievers  are  left^  merely,  to  the  con- 
sequences which  arise  to  them  from  the  nature  of  their 
own  God,  or  from  causes  not  well  defined. 

The  creatures  on  whom  the  good  God  has  compassion, 
and  whom  He  delivers,  belong,  as  to  their  origin,  wholly, 
body  and  soul  alike,  to  the  kingdom  of  the  just  God. 
But  Marcion  follows  the  common  Gnostic  conception,  by 
making  the  Christian  salvation  apply  to  the  souls  only,  not 
to  the  bodies.  The  souls  are  seats  of  mind  and  of  deliberate 
action,  and  so  far  worth  saving ;  the  bodies  are  not. 

Marcion  represented  Christ  as  divine,  and  His  incarna- 
tion as  apparent  only,  not  real.  Christ  announced  a  new 
kingdom,  and  promised  to  save  His  people  from  the  world, 
and  from  the  God  under  whose  yoke  they  groaned.  All 
that  He  did  was  right  contrary  to  what  that  God  would 
have  done;  and  at  last  the  friends  and  servants  of  the 
"just"  God  crucified  Him.  But  in  doing  so  they  blindly 
served  Christ's  purpose,  for  the  crucifixion  is  the  ransom 
which  freed  His  people  from  the  dominion  of  the  Old 
Testament  God.  As  Christ's  incarnation  is  docetic  only, 
on  Marcion's  showing,  the  stress  laid  on  the  crucifixion  is 
an  unexplained  inconsistency  in  the  scheme. 

Marcion  faced  the  whole  question  of  the  documents  to 
which  Christianity  can  appeal:  and  the  way  in  which  he 
dealt  with  this  question  is  not  the  least  important  nor  the 
least  fruitful  aspect  of  his  activity.  As  we  have  seen,  he 
rejected  the  authority  of  the  Old  Testament :  that  was  in 
no  way  the  revelation  of  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Some  of  the  Gnostics  had  attempted  to 
analyse  the  Old  Testament,  with  a  view  to  discriminate  in 


98-180]  THE   HERESIES — MARCION  127 

it  diverse  planes  of  principle  and  of  moral  view,  due  some 
to  a  lower  and  some  to  a  higher  source.  Marcion  took  it 
as  one  whole :  and  the  chief  book  he  wrote,  so  far  at  least 
as  argument  goes,  was  the  Antitheses,  in  which  he  exerted 
himself  to  bring  out  contradictions  and  inconsistencies  be- 
tween the  Old  Testament  and  the  teaching  of  Christ. 

As  regards  Christianity,  Marcion  had  to  maintain  that, 
from  a  date  very  near  the  beginning,  preverting  influences 
had  misled  the  apostles,  and  had  polluted  the  documents 
that  might  otherwise  have  passed  as  authoritative.  He 
undertook,  therefore,  to  criticise  the  sources,  and  to  bring 
out  a  version  of  them  which  might  serve  as  a  standard  for 
his  followers.  He  produced  for  this  purpose  a  Gospel  and 
ten  Epistles  of  Paul.  The  Gospel  was  a  retrenched  and 
altered  version  of  our  Luke,  beginning  with  iii.  1^  and 
then  passing  on  to  iv.  31.  The  selected  Epistles  of  Paul 
also  were  purged  of  passages  which  struck  Marcion  as 
inconsistent  with  his  view. 

Marcion's  rule  of  life,  it  has  been  said,  was  strict  and 
ascetic.  In  particular,  he  required  married  persons  to 
separate,  and  unmarried  persons  to  consent  to  remain  so, 
as  a  condition  of  baptism.  Those  who  could  not  make  up 
their  minds  to  this,  had  to  remain  in  the  stage  of  cate- 
chumens ;  and  as  considerable  numbers  occupied  this  position 
and  continued  in  it,  the  catechumenate  seems  to  have 
acquired  a  greater  importance,  or  a  higher  rank,  in  Marcion's 
Church,  than  in  the  Catholic. 

Marcion  and  his  followers  were  frank  and  outspoken. 
Many  of  the  Gnostics  adopted  an  insincere  attitude,  both 
towards  the  Christians  and  towards  the  heathens.  The 
Marcionites,  on  the  whole,  seem  to  have  been  prepared  to 
speak  out,  and  take  the  consequences.^ 

*  Among  the  Marcionites  this  was  known  probably,  not  as  the  Gospel 
according  to  Luke,  but  rather  as  the  "Gospel  of  the  Lord,"  or  the  like: 
and  the  later  Marcionites  believed  it  to  have  been  wi'itten  by  Christ  Himself. 

^  This  sketch  of  Marcion  is  in  general  agreement  with  the  views  of 
Harnack,  Dogmengesch.  1.  197  f.  ;  and  Loofs,  Leitfaden,  p.  73.  The  chief 
early  source  is  TertuUian,  Adv.  Marcionem ;  also  Hippolytus,  Hef.  vii.  17  ; 
J)ial.  Adamantii  de  orthodoxa  fde,  among  Origen's  works. 


CHAPTER  VII 

MONTANISM 

In  connection  with  discussions  of  Tubingen  theories,  Schweglep 
directed  particular  attention  to  Montanism,  Nachapostol.  ZeitaUer^ 
Tub.  1846.  On  the  other  side,  A.  Ritschl,  Alikatholische  KirchSy 
2nd  ed.,  Bonn,  1857.  Prophetic  utterances  in  Hilgenfeld,  Kdzer- 
^.  p.  591 ;  Bonwetsch,  Gesch.  d.  Mont,,  Eri.  1881. 


Montanism  appeared  first  at  the  town  of  Pepuza,  in 
Phrygia,  about  the  year  156.  A  Christian  called  Mon- 
tanus  (who  is  said  to  have  been  a  heathen  priest  before 
his  conversion)  claimed  to  be  a  prophet,  and,  indeed,  to  be 
the  representative  of  a  new  prophetic  gift;  for  in  him 
appeared  the  Paraclete  whom  Jesus  had  promised  to  His 
disciples  ;  and  this  was  to  be  the  closing  revelation  pre- 
paring the  Church  for  the  coming  of  Christ  and  the  last 
things.  Two  women,  Prisca  and  Maximilla,  were  asso- 
ciated with  him  as  prophetesses ;  and  utterances  were  given 
forth  with  great  enthusiasm  about  the  Lord's  expected 
return,  and  about  the  preparation  the  Church  must  make 
with  a  view  to  it.  For  the  standard  of  Christian  Kfe  was 
to  be  strained  to  a  higher  pitch;  more  fasting  was  re- 
quired, and  more  careful  separation  from  the  manners  and 
enjoyments  of  the  world;  celibacy  and  martyrdom  had 
great  value  set  upon  them,  and  second  marriages  were  pro- 
hibited. A  stricter  discipline  was  announced,  in  virtue  of 
which  Christians  who  fell  into  offences  of  the  graver  class 
must  not  hope  for  restoration  to  communion ;  God  could 
forgive  them,  on  their  penitence,  but  did  not  authorise  the 
Church  to  do  so.  It  was  not  denied  that  this  system  of 
Christian  administration,  taken  altogether,  involved  elements 


128 


A.D.  9a-180]  MONTANISM  129 

that  went  beyond  the  practice  of  apostolic  times.  But  the 
Spirit  of  God  was  free  to  prescribe  new  rules  in  new  cir- 
cumstances; and  the  time  had  come  for  calling  the  Church 
to  assume  the  responsibilities  of  riper  age.  In  general, 
Montanism  aimed  at  regaining  what  it  conceived  to  be  the 
genuine  and  original  spiiit  of  Christian  life,  only  in  an 
intenser  form  and  with  additional  guarantees.  In  this 
connection  various  things  which  had  heretofore  been 
discretionary  were  now  to  become  imperative  and  uni- 
versal. 

The  Montanists  did  not  teach  any  doctrines  opposed  to 
the  general  views  of  the  Church  ^ ;  for  though  they  were 
accused  of  identifying  Montanus  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  that 
seems  to  rest  only  on  their  owning  him  as  the  Paraclete — 
whom  they  understood  to  be  an  inspired  personage  that 
should  arise  in  the  Church  under  the  influence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  But  the  whole  movement  seemed  so  dangerous 
and  unsettling  that  many  churches  in  the  East,  under  the 
influence  of  their  pastors,  broke  off  communion  with  the 
followers  of  Montanus,  and  expelled  them  from  their  fellow- 
ship. On  the  other  hand,  whole  congregations  in  some 
places,  indeed  the  whole  Christianity  of  considerable  dis- 
tricts, especially  in  Phrygia,  would  seem  to  have  adhered 
to  Montanus.  Besides  this,  a  large  number  of  Christian 
people  throughout  the  Church  showed  a  disposition  to 
think  favourably,  or  at  least  gently,  of  Montanism.  This 
suggests  that  Montanism  is  not  to  be  accounted  for  from 
mere  local  circumstances.  The  churches  of  Lyons  and 
Vienne,  not  far  from  the  time  of  the  terrible  persecutions 
which  they  endured  under  Marcus  Aurelius,  sent  letters 
both  to  the  East  and  to  Rome  (the  latter  carried  by 
Irenaeus,  then  a  presbyter),  deprecating  extreme  action 
against  the  Montanists.  According  to  Tertullian,  a  bishop 
of  Rome,  perhaps  Eleutherus,  perhaps  Victor,  was  on  the 
point  of  interposing  on  their  behalf,  when  he  was  withheld 
by   the   influence    of  Praxeas,    who    brought    unfavourable 

*  Some  Montanists  at  a  later  stage  are  represented  as  accepting  Patri- 
passian  views. 

9 


130       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

accounts  of  them.  Afterwards  the  same  bishop  became 
their  resolute  opponent. 

Montanism  established  a  footing  elsewhere  than  in 
Asia  Minor,  especially  in  the  African  province,  no  doubt 
because  some  of  the  tendencies  out  of  which  Montanism 
had  sprung  were  strong  there.  At  first  we  find  it  as  a 
form  of  view  and  feeling  within  the  Church.  The  Acts  of 
Perpetua  and  Felicitas  reveal  those  sufferers  as  probably 
Montanists,  or  tinged  with  Montanism,  although  they  were 
within  the  Church,  and  have  always  ranked  as  Catholic 
martyrs.  Here  too,  however,  perhaps  as  a  consequence  of 
the  prevalence  of  adversaries  at  Eome,  it  ceased  to  be 
possible,  or  men  could  not  count  it  possible,  to  live 
together  in  one  church;  and  the  Montanists  became  a 
separate  community.  It  is  not  easy  to  decide  how  far 
claims  to  inspired  utterance  existed  among  these  Mon- 
tanists of  the  West.  At  all  events,  they  believed  in  the 
revelations  given  to  Montanus  and  his  associates ;  and 
they  possessed  written  records  of  the  utterances  of  these 
Phrygian  prophets.  They  regarded  these  as  revelations, 
supplementary  to  those  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 
The  African  Montanists  found  a  spokesman  in  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  Christians  of  the  time,  TertulHan.  In 
addition  to  his  works,  a  certain  amount  of  Montanistic 
literature  appeared,  which  perished  early. 

The  method  or  form  in  which  this  movement  displayed 
itself  was  in  some  respects  new,  and  yet  in  others  not  so. 
The  exercise  of  prophetic  gifts  in  congregations  was  not  new. 
In  all  probability  the  general  sense  of  the  churches  at  that 
time  was  in  favour  of  the  existence,  or  certainly  of  the 
possibility,  of  genuine  Christian  prophecy,  although  some 
began  to  maintain  that,  if  genuine,  it  must  be  calm  and 
conscious,  not — like  the  Montanistic  prophesying — ecstatic ; 
and  others  still,  carried  away  by  the  spirit  of  controversy, 
appear  to  have  rejected  the  idea  of  prophecy  altogether, 
and  along  with  it  the  writings  of  the  Apostle  John,  which 
seemed  to  them  to  foster  it.  Prophecy  was  not  new. 
But  it  was  new   that  a  man  claiming  to  be  a  Christian 


98-180]  MONTANISM  131 

prophet  should  assert  for  himself  such  a  presence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  to  constitute  him  the  Paraclete  promised 
by  Christ,  and  should  claim  to  bring  in  a  new  dispensa- 
tion, in  advance  of  the  apostolic  one.  So  also  the  points 
announced  as  characteristic  of  the  new  dispensation  and 
imperative  on  those  who  lived  under  it,  were  new  only 
in  so  far  as  rules,  formerly  reckoned  discretionary, 
were  now  to  be  peremptory.  Chiliastic  expectations  of 
Christ's  return  were  no  novelty.  The  importance  of  great 
strictness  of  life  and  abstinence  from  various  pleasures  and 
indulgences  was  a  familiar  thought.  The  principle  that 
certain  sins  should  not  receive  the  Church's  testimony  of 
forgiveness  was  probably  no  novelty  at  all,  but  had  been 
applied  in  various  churches ;  perhaps,  however,  with  no 
strict  consistency. 

To  complete  this  sketch  it  is  necessary  to  keep  in  view 
what  the  Montanists  felt  it  needful  to  oppose.  They  were 
in  conscious  opposition  to  Gnosticism  and  everything  con- 
nected with  it.  They  were  opposed  to  the  authority  which 
ofi&ce-bearers,  especially  bishops,  were  attaining  in  the 
churches,  or,  at  least,  to  the  manner  in  which  that  author- 
ity was  exercised.  They  were  opposed  to  the  adjustment 
of  Christian  life  to  worldly  ease  and  convenience,  which 
they  believed  was  prevalent  in  the  Church ;  and  they  set 
themselves  against  the  tendencies  to  relaxation  of  disci- 
pline. Finally,  they  were,  of  course,  opposed  to  every  mode 
of  view  and  feeling  that  was  content  to  postpone  indefinitely 
the  prospect  of  the  Lord's  return. 

Such,  in  general,  was  Montauism.  The  phenomenon  is 
best  understood  as  a  reaction  against  a  condition  of  the 
Church,  and  of  the  Christian  life,  which  seemed  to  the 
Montanists  to  be  pitched  too  low,  and  also  to  have  decayed 
from  an  earlier  and  purer  standard.  It  is  likely,  in  fact, 
that  in  the  Christian  congregations  features  appeared  that 
suggested  a  falling  off  from  an  earlier  and  in  tenser  time. 
Probably,  in  spite  of  the  persecutions  which  Christians  had 
to  bear,  there  were  symptoms  of  worldliness  of  life,  and  of 
accommodation  to  Gentile  notions.     There  might  be  coming 


132       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

into  the  modes  of  worship  and  into  the  method  of  Church 
management  something  of  a  mechanical  order  of  things,  con- 
trasting sensibly  enough  with  the  freedom,  the  vivacity,  the 
spiritual  impulse  of  an  earlier  day.  Probably  enough,  also, 
the  Montanists  were  predisposed  to  exaggerate  what  might 
truthfully  be  set  down  under  these  heads. 

Suggestions  have  been  offered  from  various  points  of 
view  as  to  the  state  of  the  churches  at  this  time  and  as 
to  the  Montanist  impression  of  it;  and,  indeed,  various 
influences  might  conspire  to  produce  the  situation.  One 
may  be  noticed  which,  perhaps,  has  been  too  much  over- 
looked. The  mere  natural  progress  of  human  affairs  tends 
to  bring  about  a  situation  such  as  Montanism  presupposes. 
In  any  great  religious  movement  a  stage  is  by  and  by 
reached  at  which  a  natural  cause  begins  to  operate  as  a 
source  of  change.  And  this  has  repeatedly  received  con- 
spicuous illustration  in  the  history  of  Christian  churches. 

The  advent  of  a  new  religion,  making  serious  and 
impressive  claims  to  embody  a  new  revelation  from  on 
high,  is  not  a  frequent  occurrence.  But  frequently  enough 
great  religious  awakenings  have  attended  the  advent  into 
a  country  or  district  of  a  new  sect,  which  breaks  in  on  a 
conventional  or  slumbering  Christianity,  and  claims  to 
republish  authentically  and  effectually  the  original  Christian 
message.  The  awakened  become  partisans  of  the  new  sect ; 
the  new  sincerity  and  devotedness  of  many  of  them  enhance 
the  general  impression  and  give  a  fresh  impetus  to  the  pro- 
gress of  the  movement  At  the  same  time,  such  persons  are 
found  to  lay  stress  on  the  ecclesiastical  peculiarities,  or,  still 
more,  on  the  points  of  Christian  practice,  self-denial,  and  the 
like,  which  happen  to  characterise  the  movement.  Perhaps 
certain  forms  of  emotion,  or  of  expressing  emotion,  come  to 
have  particular  value  attached  to  them.  Perhaps,  also,  stress 
is  laid  on  the  principle  that  Church  fellowship  should  be 
pure,  that  is,  that  it  should  be  confined  to  persons  who  afford 
individual  and  substantial  evidence  of  adherence  to  Christ 
and  of  separation  from  the  world.  So  there  arises  and 
grows  a  new  embodiment  of  Christianity. 


98-180]  MONTANISM  133 

But  Time  has  his  office  to  discharge,  testing,  moulding 
adjusting,  in  many  ways  which  need  not  be  dwelt  on  here 
The  thing  to  be  especially  noted  is  that  a  point  is  reached 
at  which  the  composition  of  the  body  begins  to  change. 
Time  was  when  the  accessions  to  it  were  almost  entirely  in 
the  form  of  persons,  who,  as  the  result  of  inward  conflict 
and  crisis,  broke  with  their  old  ways,  with  the  associations 
and  habits  of  previous  life,  and  gave  in  that  way  a  suffi- 
ciently impressive  pledge  of  the  earnestness  of  their  pro- 
fession. But  by  and  by  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  bulk  of 
the  accessions,  or  a  very  large  portion  of  them,  are  from 
the  children  of  the  members.  Of  these,  some,  after  con- 
sciously standing  out  alike  against  the  Christian  influences 
and  the  sectarian  peculiarities  of  the  body,  come  distinctly, 
by  a  great  change,  to  new  views  of  things,  and  give  them- 
selves up  consciously  and  freely  to  the  fellowship  of  the 
saints  as  their  fathers  did.  Some — far  more — are  cases  of 
another  kind.  They  have  been  nurtured  in  Christian  homes ; 
they  have  been  sheltered  as  much  as  may  be  from  undesir- 
able influences ;  they  have  manifested  on  occasion  tokens 
of  seriousness  and  upright  purpose;  and  they  are  willing, 
as  their  friends  are  willing,  that  they  should  take  their 
place  as  believers.  Nor  has  anyone  a  right  to  form  an 
adverse  judgment  of  the  reality  and  sincerity  of  their 
profession ;  theirs  may  often  be  the  more  consistent  and 
reliable  type  of  religion;  and  yet  certainly  very  many  of 
them  will  differ  in  their  development  from  the  old  type. 
Instead  of  the  question  being  how  far  they  ought  to  go  in 
the  way  of  defying  and  renouncing  fellowship  with  a  world 
they  have  known  too  well  and  are  now  forsaking,  the  ques- 
tion will  often  rather  be,  why  restrictions  should  be  accepted, 
and  whether  this  or  that  indulgence,  which  the  society  con- 
ventionally reckons  worldly  and  unbecoming,  might  not  be 
adopted  without  any  real  harm  or  danger. 

When  this  new  element  begins  to  form  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  whole,  and  when  the  new  tendencies  begin  to 
operate  strongly,  a  crisis  is  apt  to  take  place.  For  there 
will  be  many  who  cling  not  only  to  the  old  faith,  but  to 


134       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

the  old  ways  of  embodying  it.  Those  on  the  other  side 
will  be  for  moderating  the  ancient  rigour,  for  broadening 
the  platform,  and  for  freer  accommodation  to  what  they 
reckon  simply  human  in  the  world  and  its  ways.^ 

Turning  back  now  from  modern  sects  to  the  undivided 
Church,  one  sees  that  the  same  thing  must  have  occurred 
there.  In  the  various  countries  in  which  it  was  settled 
there  came  a  time,  earlier  here,  later  there,  when  the 
recruits  from  among  the  children  of  Christians,  trained  up 
to  be  Christians,  came  to  bear  a  very  sensible  proportion  to 
the  accessions  from  the  outside  and  to  the  general  mass 
of  the  membership.  It  is  impossible  to  fix  an  exact  date 
for  this ;  but  probably  in  the  countries  where  Christianity 
made  its  beginnings  under  the  influence  of  apostles,  some 
time  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century  may  be 
as  near  an  era  as  it  is  possible  to  assign.  Of  course  the 
case  of  the  Christian  Church  planted  among  the  nations 
must  differ,  in  various  ways,  from  that  of  any  sect  forming 
in  connection  with  religious  awakening  in  a  territory  of 
professing  Christianity.  But  the  one  case  illustrates  the 
other.  There  might  well  be  a  perceptible  difference  of 
tone  and  tendency  between  the  time  when  the  churches 
were  chiefly  composed  of,  and  were  generally  led  by,  men 
who  had  themselves  passed  over  from  heathenism  by  a 
memorable  act  of  personal  decision,  and  the  time  when 
Christianity  was  largely  represented  by  persons  who  were 
in  the  Church  because  they  had  been  brought  up  to  it, 
who  had  always  looked  forward  to  life  as  to  be  lived  in 
a  Christian  profession,  who  had  from  the  first  foreseen  all 
life's  experiences  as  necessarily  taking  shape  under  that 
influence.^      Many    of    these    might    indeed    be    intensely, 

^  This  process  has  been  exemplified  a  hundred  times.  There  are  con- 
gregations scattered  over  our  country,  arising  out  of  the  religious  awaken- 
ings of  the  end  of  last  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  present,  in  which 
the  process  has  visibly  been  accomplished.  On  a  larger  scale  one  may  refer 
to  the  Mennonites  of  Holland,  to  the  Society  of  Friends,  in  some  degree  also 
to  the  Wesleyan  Methodists,  and  various  other  bodies. 

^  A  very  good  instance  is  supplied  by  the  Christian  expectation  of  the 
Lord's  return,  with  the  great  events  it  was  to  bring  with  it.     To  many  early 


98-180]  MONTANISM  135 

irrationally,  loyal  to  all  tlie  old  traditions.  But  many 
also  would  be  of  another  type.  A  tendency  could  not  but 
arise  to  reconcile  with  Christian  profession  a  good  many 
modes  of  life,  enjoyments,  occupations,  social  actions  and 
customs,  from  which  the  first  Christians  had  recoiled. 
In  their  minds  these  were  associated  with  secularity  and 
idolatry,  while  their  successors  might  come  to  regard  them 
as  not  necessarily  evil,  but  simply  neutral  and  human.  And 
in  times  and  places  where  there  was  not  much  persecution, 
people  could  become  and  continue  Christians  who  neither 
were  nor  professed  to  be  very  devoted  persons. 

When  these  tendencies  became  operative,  tension  would 
set  in.  Many  would  be  vexed.  Was  this  Christ's  promise 
of  the  Spirit?  Was  this  the  power  and  presence  of  the 
Church's  head  ?  With  these  good  people  might  join  many 
who  were  not  so  really  under  the  spiritual  power  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  with  whom  religion  stood  very  much  in  the 
observance  of  the  accepted  peculiarities.  These,  too,  would 
bewail  the  change,  and  vote  for  holding  on  to  the  old  ways. 

Presently  this  feeling  would  express  itself  in  another 
direction :  it  would  lay  hold  of  the  discipline  of  the  Church. 
Has  not  Christ  qualified  the  Church  to  keep  herself  pure  ? 
Can  she  not  frame  such  rules,  and  so  apply  them,  as  to 
keep  out  and  put  out  this  lazy,  self-indulgent,  worldly- 
minded  style  of  Christianity  ?  Here  would  set  in,  by  a 
fatal  necessity,  a  collision  between  this  party  and  the 
majority,  the  great  majority  of  the  rulers  of  the  Church. 
It  would  prove  so,  for  this  reason  among  others,  that  those 
who  have  permanent  responsibilities  in  connection  with 
discipline  acquire  an  experimental  knowledge  as  to  what 
discipline  can  do  and  what  it  cannot ;  in  particular,  they 
learn  that  discipline  must  proceed  not  upon  wishes  and 
impressions,  but  upon  definite  rules  and  conclusive  proofs. 

Christians,  who  brought  with  them  from  heathenism  sad  memories,  and 
materials  of  much  inward  conflict,  and  whose  conversion  broke  many  ties  of 
friendship  and  kindred,  the  conviction  that  Christ  would  soon  come  might 
be  animating  and  cheering.  But  young  persons,  born  in  the  Church,  and 
looking  forward  to  life  and  its  experiences,  might  regard  the  prospect  in  a 
different  way. 


136       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       U-B. 

Further,  such  persons  could  not  overlook,  nor  afford  to 
overlook,  the  elements  of  conscience  and  of  Christian  char- 
acter among  those  who  took  the  milder  view.  Hence 
would  come  mutual  suspicions : —  on  the  one  hand,  a 
tendency  to  regard  church  rulers  as  not  alive  to  the 
necessities  of  the  Church,  as  perceived  by  spiritual  men ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  tendency  on  the  side  of 
church  officers  to  regard  those  we  speak  of  as  insub- 
ordinate and   disorderly.^ 

The  same  tendencies  might  come  into  collision  in 
another  field,  that  of  the  public  teaching  and  the  public 
worship.  The  earlier  practice  of  the  Church  had  been 
more  or  less  to  employ  in  worship  under  the  presidency  of 
the  pastor  or  pastors,  the  gifts  of  the  congregation.  This 
feature  was  now  retiring.  Things  were  falhng  into  a  set 
order,  and  public  utterance  was  being  restricted  to  those  who 
were  regarded  as  having  special  aptitudes  to  edify  the  people, 
and  who  were  called  to  office  on  that  ground.  If  so,  we 
may  well  believe  that  some  would  impute  to  the  methods 
so  coming  in,  the  lack  of  vitality  and  the  failure  of  power 
which  they  were  disposed  to  recognise  as  prevailing 
evils. 

On  lines  like  these  one  can  understand  the  spread,  here 
and  there,  in  the  Christian  churches, — especially  perhaps 
among  the  humbler  members,  so  far  as  these  were  earnest 
and  clung  to  memories  of  earlier  days, — of  a  feeling  of 
dissatisfaction  and  distrust.  It  would  aim  at  having  room 
made  and  effect  given  to  impulses  and  convictions  which 
the  Spirit  of  God  inspires  in  Christian  hearts,  as  against 
secularity  and  worldly  conformity,  as  against  set  methods 
that  turn  Christianity  into  a  mechanical  system  going 
on  of  itself,  as  against  worldly  wisdom  and  philosophy; 
finally,  as  against  the  hierarchy  and  the  centralised  ecclesi- 
astical authority  which  seemed   to  leave  no  room  for  the 

^  One  point  of  difference  was  the  way  of  dealing  with  those  who,  by 
common  consent,  ought  to  be  subjected  to  discipline.  In  this  point,  also, 
extreme  rigour  was  more  apt  to  commend  itself  to  those  who  theorised  from 
a  distance,  than  to  those  who  had  to  deal  with  the  actual  sinners. 


98-180j  MONTANISM  13? 

free  upburst  of  the  Christian  heart  to  assert  its  desires 
and  make  good  the  result  it  longed  for. 

There  might  be  a  great  deal  of  prejudice  and  short- 
sightedness at  the  bottom  of  all  this ;  probably  there  was 
also  a  great  deal  that  was  worthy  and  sincere.  Dangers 
did  lie  before  the  Church  against  which  it  would  have  been 
well  to  guard.  But  the  dissatisfied  section  were  too 
apt  to  assert  as  the  true  marks  of  real  Christianity — of  the 
Spirit's  presence  and  power  —  certain  approved  forms  of 
self-denial  and  methods  of  work  righteousness;  and  they 
were  apt  to  drive  at  these  by  what  seemed  to  them  the 
readiest  means;  as  if  when  they  got  these  things  to  be 
required  and  to  be  complied  with,  they  would  then  have 
real  and  satisfactory  Christianity.  Thus,  they  too  went 
astray  with  their  own  forms  of  externalism.  And  they 
deprived  themselves  by  so  doing  of  all  durable  influence; 
for  it  could  with  perfect  truth  and  fairness  be  maintained 
against  them,  that  no  such  yoke  as  they  would  impose  had 
been  laid  by  the  Lord  upon  His  Church. 

Such  feelings  existed  and  operated,  most  likely,  in  all 
parts  of  the  Church,  and  very  many  of  those  who  shared 
them  never  became  Montanists;  but  the  mood  of  mind 
described,  furnished  the  materials  to  which  Montanism 
appealed.  In  its  special  form  Montanism  was  a  Phry- 
gian phenomenon,  due,  no  doubt,  to  tendencies  to  religious 
exaltation  and  excitement,  which  had  characterised  the 
Phrygian  people  for  ages;  and  it  availed  itself  of  the 
elements  of  awe  and  wonder  suggested  by  the  expectation 
of  the  coming  of  the  Lord.  Hence  feelings  and  convictions, 
which  existed  in  many  quarters,  there  found  expression  in 
persons  who  had  been  looked  on  as  prophets  before,  or 
who  appeared  in  that  character  now,  but  who  claimed  at 
all  events  to  have  received  a  quite  new  mission.  They 
spoke  in  a  remarkably  ecstatic  manner.  No  doubt  the 
epidemic  nervous  excitement  was  present,  which  has  often 
manifested  itself  in  connection  with  religious  enthusiasm.^ 

*  See  Hacker's  Epidemics  qf  the  Middle  Ages, — Publications  of  Sydenham 
Society, 


138       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       U-D. 

The  conclusion  was  drawn  at  once  that  a  special  visitation 
of  spiritual  power  had  been  vouchsafed  to  authorise  and  to 
emphasise  the  new  teaching.  When  this  stream  of  ecstasy 
and  prophecy  began  to  run,  to  certain  minds  it  seemed 
conclusive.  Here,  men  said,  is  a  new  era  and  a  new 
power.  Now  we  see  the  secret  of  our  vexations  and  our 
disappointments.  The  era  of  the  Paraclete  had  not  come, 
and  so  things  could  not  be  set  right.  But  now  he  has 
come.  Now  at  last,  not  through  bishops  or  synods,  but  by 
the  Spirit  Himself,  the  Church  will  become  a  society  worthy 
of  its  calling;  and  Christians,  shaking  themselves  clear  of 
entanglement  and  compromise,  will  be  raised  to  the  posture 
that  becomes  them,  as  disciples  awaiting  the  coming  of 
the  Lord. 

This  seems  thoroughly  to  explain  the  various  pheno- 
mena of  Montanism.  It  explains  how  Montanism  kept 
clear  of  new  doctrine,  excepting  the  modification  of  the 
idea  of  the  Paraclete ;  and  how  its  whole  energy  was 
directed  to  disciplinary  preparation  for  the  coming  of  the 
Lord.  It  explains  also  how  ecclesiastical  authorities  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  its  first  appearance,  saw  in  it  a 
dangerously  subversive  movement  that  required  to  be 
instantly  checked;  and  also  how  it  came  to  pass  that 
large-minded  bishops  in  regions  farther  off,  seeing  in  it 
what  it  had  in  common  with  the  feelings  of  many  good 
Christians  everywhere, — feelings  which  they  respected,  and 
perhaps  partly  shared, — were  slow  to  commit  themselves  to 
a  collision  with  it,  and  were  anxious  to  treat  it  in  a  tolerant 
spirit  as  long  as  they  could.  That  plainly  implies  that 
they  saw  mixed  up  with  it  Christian  aspirations  which 
deserved  to  be  regarded. 

From  the  human  point  of  view,  it  must  be  regarded 
as  a  calamity  that  the  assertion  of  the  Church's  depend- 
ence on  the  Spirit,  in  those  ministrations  of  His  which  are 
not  limited  to  clerical  character  or  standing  arrangements, 
but  belong  to  all  believers,  was  made  in  a  form  so  inde- 
fensible and  fanatical.  That  soon  blew  over,  as  all  fanati- 
cisms do ;  Montanism  as  a  concrete  thing  fades  away  early 


98-180]  MONTANISM  139 

in  the  third  century,  although  its  influence  lasted  longer. 
Meanwhile  the  Church  more  and  more  provided  for  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  practically  chaining  His 
influence  to  the  hierarchy  and  the  sacraments. 

The  mood  of  mind  above  referred  to  as  diffused  through 
the  churches,  and  as  existing  in  places  where  it  refused 
to  accept  the  form  of  Montanism,  reappears  from  time  to 
time,  especially  in  the  disputes  regarding  discipline,  of 
which  Novatianism  and  Donatism  are  conspicuous  instances. 
With  respect  to  the  local  Phrygian  conditions  which  gave 
to  Montanism  its  sensational  features,  it  will  be  useful  to 
read  Professor  Eamsay's  account  of  Glycerins  the  deacon.^ 
The  incident  falls  two  hundred  years  later,  and  belongs  to 
Cappadocia ;  but  it  is  not  the  less  illustrative  and  suggestive* 
*  Church  in  Roman  Empire^  p.  443. 


SECOND   DIVISION 

A.D.  180-313 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Relation  to  the  State 

Aubd,  Les  Chrdiens  dans  Vempire  Romaiuy  Par.  1881,  and  Valise  et  Vdat^ 
1886.  Neumann,  Romische  Staat,  Leipz.  1890.  Hardy,  Christianity 
and  the  Roman  Governmenty  London,  1894.  Mason,  Persecution  of 
Diocletian^  Cambr.  1876.  Kamsay,  Church  in  Roman  Empire^  deals 
professedly  with  the  earlier  period,  but  throws  much  light  also 
on  this. 

This  period  was  on  the  whole  a  dark  one  for  the  empire. 
Famines,  pestilences,  earthquakes,  disastrous  inroads  of  the 
Northern  tribes,  and  arduous  wars  upon  the  frontier  tried 
the  State,  while  weakness  from  political  causes  gained 
ground  within.  But  Christianity  grew.  It  reveals  its 
existence  in  distant  regions,  in  Arabia,  India,  and  Persia ; 
and  in  every  province  of  the  empire,  where  its  earlier 
existence  had  been  questionable  or  feeble,  it  becomes  con- 
spicuous during  the  third  century — in  Africa,  Spain,  Gaul, 
Britain,  in  all  the  Eomanised  provinces  on  the  German 
frontier  and  along  the  Danube.  The  growth  in  numbers 
continued  throughout  the  century,  and  an  uneasy  anger  on 
account  of  it  haunted  the  pagan  mind.  To  Origen  the 
progress  in  this  respect  is  so  remarkable,  that  he  argues  an 
early  supersession  of  other  religions  by  the  mere  continu- 
ance of  the  process  which  he  sees  going  on.^ 
^  Contra  Celsum,  8. 

140 


A.D.  180-313]        ACTION   OF   THE   GOVERNMENT  141 

Action  of  the  Government 

During  the  reign  of  Commodus  (180-193),  the  Chris- 
tians (ante^  Chap.  I.)  suffered  continually;  but  the  central 
government,  so  far  as  we  know,  did  not  stimulate  the  local 
severities,  and  the  influence  of  Marcia,  the  imperial  con- 
cubine, could  be  exerted  to  release  Christian  captives.^ 
Septimius  Severus  (193-211)  was  in  friendly  relations  with 
individual  Christians,  but  he  specifically  prohibited  conver- 
sion to  Christianity  and  to  Judaism.  As  his  reign  proceeded, 
he  became  more  actively  hostile,  and  sharp  persecution 
set  in  at  Alexandria  and  in  the  African  province  about 
A.D.  202.  In  this  persecution,  Leonidas,  the  father  of 
Origen,  was  among  the  sufferers.  Caracalla  (211-217) 
and  Heliogabalus  (217-225)  inherited  from  Julia  Domna, 
the  wife  of  Severus,  a  tendency  to  Eastern  worships,  and 
a  disposition  to  fuse  together  the  more  popular  elements 
of  various  faiths.  The  same  spirit  appeared  in  a  worthier 
form  in  Alexander  Severus  (225—235).  It  was  a  mood 
which  detached  men  from  the  old  Koman  maxims,  and  it 
disposed  them  to  examine  Christianity  with  interest  and 
respect.  The  Christians  reaped  the  benefit  in  the  form  of 
comparative  tranquillity;  but  the  legal  position  had  not 
changed.*  Maximinus,  the  first  babarian  emperor  (2  3  5—2  3  8), 
was  unfriendly,  and  directed  the  presidents  of  the  churches 
to  be  especially  aimed  at, — perhaps  because  the  significance 
and  the  growing  power  of  the  hierarchy  were  now  attracting 
the  notice  of  the  government.  Pontianus,  the  bishop  of 
Eome,  and  Hippolytus  were  sent  to  the  mines  of  Sardinia, 
and  in  Cappadocia  a  sharp  persecution  took  place  under 
the  proconsul  Serenianus.  Under  the  two  Gordians  (238- 
244)  and  Philip  the  Arabian  (244-249)  public  troubles 
occupied  the  government,  and  the  Christians  were  let  alone. 
A  tradition  existed  that  Philip  was  or  became  a  Christian ; 
if  80,  this  unedifying  convert  is  the  first  Christian  emperor. 

^  Hipp.  Bef.  ix.  12,  see  p.  18,  ante. 

•  Ulpian  at  this  time  collected  the  laws  bearing  on  Christians.     His  work 
has  not  survived. 


142       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

Baby  las,  bishop  of  Antioch,  is  said  to  have  refused  him  en- 
trance to  the  Church  until  he  confessed  and  made  satisfaction 
for  his  fault.^  Alexander  Sever  as  also  was  believed  by  some 
Christians  to  have  become  a  convert.  He  venerated  Christ, 
at  least,  and  valued  some  elements  of  His  teaching.  He  left 
no  trace,  however,  on  the  laws  or  on  the  life  of  the  empire. 

A  new  state  of  things  set  in  with  the  reign  of  Decius 
(249—251),  and  lasted  till  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Valerian 
(253—260).  Decius  belonged  to  a  class  of  emperors 
vigorously  represented  in  the  third  century.  While  the 
empire  was  losing  faith  in  itself,  in  its  gods,  in  its  old 
beliefs  and  maxims,  and  was  bewildered  by  its  troubles, 
and  while  imperial  families  of  Eastern  origin  and  Eastern 
sympathies  amused  themselves  in  devising  new  religions, 
bold  soldiers,  who  had  to  confront  the  barbarians,  fought 
their  way  up  to  power.  They  were  apt  to  think  it  their 
business  to  recall  together  the  old  Eoman  maxims  and  the 
old  Eoman  triumphs.  Such  a  man  was  Decius.  The 
growth  of  Christianity  seemed  to  him  ominous ;  he  saw  that 
persecution  as  hitherto  practised  had  not  greatly  hindered 
it.  Under  his  authority  special  legislation  was  undertaken 
with  a  view  to  suppress  the  objectionable  religion.  The 
edict  of  A.D.  250  decreed  that  all  Christians  should  be 
cited  to  perform  the  ceremonies  of  State  religion;  those 
who  fled  were  to  have  their  goods  confiscated,  and  to 
be  put  to  death  if  they  returned.  Those  arrested  were 
subjected  to  successive  severities  intended  to  break  them 
down;  priests  were  to  be  promptly  put  to  death;  torture 
and  death  soon  became  the  portion  of  all  Christians  who 
stood  out.  Decius  died  in  battle  next  year,  but  his  laws 
remained;  and  a  fresh  impulse  was  given  to  the  action 
of  the  authorities  by  Valerian  (253-260).  He  was  a  good 
though  not  a  fortunate  emperor,  and  no  doubt  acted 
conscientiously.  Beginning  with  a  system  of  pressure, 
which  did  not  prove  sufficiently  effective,  he  went  on  to 
decree  the  execution  of  clergymen,  degradation  and  con- 
fiscation of  goods  for  men  of  rank,  followed  by  death  for 
^  Aubd,  Ohritiens  dam  V Empire,  p.  461. 


180-313]  ACTION   OF   THE   GOVERNMENT  143 

the  obstinate,  banishment  for  women,  working  in  chains 
for  members  of  the  imperial  service.  Fabianus  of  Eome, 
Alexander  of  Jerusalem,  Babylas  of  Antioch,  and  other 
bishops  are  named  as  martyrs  under  Decius;  Sixtus  of 
Eome,  Cyprian  of  Carthage,  and  others  under  Valerian. 
Direct  instructions  from  Eome  to  the  provincial  governors 
are  mentioned  in  some  of  these  cases.^ 

This  hard  onset  broke  down  the  fidelity  of  very  many 
Christians.  Some  hastened  to  abjure ;  others  gave  way 
when  pressed;  others  still  signed  declarations  that  they 
had  sacrificed,  or  procured  certificates  to  that  effect.  The 
fallen  were  so  many  that  all  the  old  discussions  as  to  the 
Church's  duty  in  relation  to  such  persons  were  resumed  with 
eagerness,  and  led  to  fresh  divisions  of  opinion.^  Some  of 
the  letters  of  Cyprian  convey  a  vivid  impression  of  the 
situation  thus  created. 

But  Valerian  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  Persian  adver- 
saries, and  his  son  Gallienus(260-268),a  less  resolute  ruler 
though  a  more  cultivated  man,  ere  long  terminated  the 
persecution.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  reversed  the 
old  presumption  of  the  Eoman  law  in  regard  to  Christians, 
but  he  must  have  withdrawn  the  special  measures  of 
Decius  and  Valerian, —  and  this  manifestation  of  his  good- 
will must  have  been  a  warning  to  governors  to  use  their 
discretion  gently.  Aurelian  (270-275)  is  said  to  have  had 
thoughts  of  taking  measures  against  Christianity,  but  his 
life  ended  without  any  steps  of  that  kind.  Days  of  great 
confusion  had  overtaken  the  empire ;  and  the  series  of 
soldier  emperors  who  followed  had  hardly  time,  in  their 
short  and  stormy  reigns,  to  do  more  than  meet  the  most 
urgent  necessities  of  government.  They  fought  the  empire 
out  of  its  most  serious  difficulties ;  and  Diocletian,  a  man 
of  the  same   type  (284-305),   completed  their  work  and 

^  Cyprian,  Ep.  18,  and  see  Acta  1. 

•  Name  for  those  who  sacrificed,  sdcrificati  ;  those  who  oflfered  incense,  thuri- 
ficati;  those  who  emitted  declarations  of  conformity  to  paganism,  adafacientea 
{X^ipoypa^rjaavTes  when  personally  signed) ;  those  who  procured  certificates 
to  the  same  effect,  libellatid. 


144       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

inherited  the  fruits  of  it.  From  the  accession  of  Gallienus, 
therefore,  to  the  year  303,  the  Christians  for  the  most  part 
were  free  from  serious  trouble. 

During  the  whole  period,  Christianity,  as  far  as  the  law 
was  concerned,  existed  on  sufferance :  but  yet  the  religion 
and  its  leaders  were  very  well  known  to  the  authorities, 
and  the  sect  continued  not  merely  to  exist  but  to  own 
property,  and  to  deal  with  the  authorities  from  time  to 
time  about  its  temporal  interests.  The  Christians  availed 
themselves  of  laws  which  sanctioned  collegia  tenuiorum — 
societies  for  charitable  and  co-operative  purposes,  which 
could  hold  property,  acquh-e  burial-grounds,  and  so  forth ; 
and  the  authorities  might  not  choose  to  see  that  under 
these  forms  they  were  dealing  with  Christians.  But  even 
apart  from  that  artifice,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  a 
Christian  was  reckoned  a  bad  subject  because  he  refused 
to  sacrifice;  and  as  long  as  a  magistrate  chose  to  assume 
that  the  Christians  known  to  him  might  be  good  subjects, 
who  would  sacrifice  if  called  upon,  he  might  not  incur 
much  responsibility  by  raising  no  questions.  That  would 
not  apply  to  times  when  laws  were  in  force  like  those  of 
Decius  and  Valerian,  but  in  ordinary  times  it  was  possible. 
Christianity,  in  fact,  was  steadily  becoming  more  and  more 
conspicuous,  and  its  place  in  the  community  was  notorious. 
Hence  from  time  to  time  it  is  frankly  taken  notice  of. 
Alexander  Severus  adjudged  to  the  Christians  a  site  beyond 
the  Tiber,  the  title  to  which  was  disputed;  Gallienus  wrote 
to  the  Egyptian  bishops  that  their  cemeteries  and  meeting- 
places  should  be  restored  to  them,  and  that  they  should 
not  be  disturbed.  Aurelian  was  actually  asked  to  interpose 
in  the  question  between  the  orthodox  and  Paul  of  Samosata, 
and  he  professed  to  decide  it  according  to  the  opinion  of 
the  Koman  bishop.^  Church  buildings  certainly  existed  eo 
nomine  in  the  time  of  Diocletian,  and  probably  a  good 
deal  earlier. 

In  such  circumstances,  and  after  forty  years*  immunity 
from  serious  disturbance,  the  Christians  must  have  imagined 
^  There  were  obvious  political  motives  for  his  action. 


180-313]  ACTION    OF   THE   GOVERNMENT  145 

that  they  had  virtually  established  their  "right  to  be" 
("  Christianos  esse  passus  est");  but  in  the  year  303 
Diocletian,  persuaded  by  his  colleague  Galerius,  began  to  set 
in  motion  the  last  great  persecution.  For  some  years  pre- 
viously steps  had  been  taken  which  indicated  a  determination 
to  discourage  Christianity.  The  actual  persecution  continued 
for  eight  years.  It  did  not  affect  the  whole  empire  with 
equal  severity.  Probably  Asia  Minor,  Palestine,  and  Egypt 
suffered  most, — Italy  and  the  central  provinces  not  quite 
so  continuously, — Spain,  Gaul,  and  Britain  under  Constantius 
Chlorus  were  comparatively  spared.  This  Caesar  demolished 
churches,  verum  autem  templum  quod  est  in  hominihus  incolume 
servavit  (Lact.  de  Morte,  15).  Constantine  succeeded  his 
father  in  the  West  in  306.  In  311  Galerius,  in  his  last 
illness,  issued  an  edict  owning  the  failure  of  his  efforts,  and 
announcing  the  termination  of  the  persecution.  After  a 
little  it  was  renewed  in  the  Asiatic  provinces  by  Maximinus. 
But  in  313,  Constantine  and  Licinius  divided  the  whole 
empire  between  them ;  and  in  the  same  year  they  pub- 
lished at  Milan  a  joint  edict  of  universal  toleration. 


CHAPTEK   IX 

The  New  Philosophy 

Harnack,  article  "  Neo-Platonism,"  Encycl.  Brit.y  9th  ed,  Plotinus, 
Opera  Omnia,  Oxf.  1835,  Lips.  1856  {Emi.  ii.  9  contains  tlie  attack 
on  Gnosticism  ;  on  this  see  Neander  in  Wissenschaftl.  Ahhandlungen^ 
Berl.  1851).  Porphyry,  Fabricius,  Bibl.  Grcsca,  v.  Zeller,  Philosophie 
der  Griechen,  Leipz.  1865,  3rd  ed.  vol.  iii.  2.  Kelations  to  Christi- 
anity, Church  Histories  of  Neander  and  Baur,  and  DogrneTigeschichte 
of  latter.  Augustine,  Conf.  B.  ii.  Tzschirner,  Fall  des  Heiden- 
thums,  1849.  HUber,  Philosophie  d.  Kirchenvclter,  1859.  Vogt, 
Neuplatonismus  u.  Christenthum^  1836.    Jahn,  Basilius  Platonizans. 

Early  in  the  third  century  a  new  speculative  effort  made 
an  epoch  in  the  history  of  philosophy. 

Before  the  Christian  era  the  efforts  of  the  older  Greek 
schools  to  supply  a  positive  basis  for  thought  and  life  had 
begun  to  give  way  to  a  sceptical  tendency,  represented  by 
various  schools  of  doubt.  Yet  alongside  of  this  and  after  it, 
the  desire  to  believe  gained  ground  again ;  and  it  proved 
vigorous  enough  to  make  head  against  strong  sceptical 
tendencies.  After  the  time  of  discouragement,  men  began 
again,  in  the  first  and  second  centuries,  to  postulate  a 
divine  derivation  both  for  reason  and  for  religion,  on  the 
assumption  that  the  better  mind  of  the  race  had  all  along 
been,  in  a  manner,  inspired.  Thus  reason  and  religion 
were  to  combine  their  strength,  and  men  hoped  to  find, 
not  only  light,  but  warmth,  which  seemed  unattainable 
on  other  terms.  A  tendency  this  way  works  variously  in 
men  like  Philo,  Plutarch,  Apollonius,  Numenius,  and  indeed 
also  in  Seneca  and  Epictetus.  It  took  shape  finally  and 
deliberately  in  the  school  of  the  New  Platonists,  as  they 
were  called.     Alexandria,  where  a  great  school  of  learning 


A.D.  180-313]  THE   NEW   PHILOSOPHY  147 

had  long  existed,  was  the  cradle  of  this  latest  effort  of  Greek 
thought;  there,  at  anyrate,  early  in  the  third  century,  the 
New  Platouism  came  into  evidence. 

It  was,  once  more,  a  philosophy  ;  but  it  did  not  profess 
to  be  a  new  philosophic  sect.    Eather,  it  claimed  to  combine 
the  strength  of  past  speculation,  emphasising  what  might  be 
held  to  be  the  best  wisdom  of  it  all.     More  than  any  of  the 
noted  older  schools,  it  aimed,  also,  at  religion, — confessed  the 
need  of  it,  and  professed  to  supply  it.     But  here,  too,  it  was 
not  to  be  a  new  religion,  but  was  to  disclose  the  true  secret, 
the  reasonable  significance  of  all  religions.     The  new  school 
hoped  thus  to  supply  a  devout  enthusiasm,  and  a  reason  for 
it.     It  was  therefore  a  philosophy  striving  towards  religion. 
The  older  forms  of  Greek  thought  did,  no  doubt,  recognise 
God  or  gods.    But  the  conception  of  life  according  to  reason, 
which  ruled  those  systems  on  their  practical  side,  drew  little 
inspiration  from  the  gods.     Things  would  have  been  much 
the  same  if  the  -gods  had  been  left  out.     The  new  scheme 
professed  to  get  beyond  reason,  into  a  region  of  religious 
experience,  of  fellowship  with  the  unseen  and  eternal;  and 
yet  this  was  to  be  grounded  on  a  reasoned   conception  of 
existence  and  of  the  world.     It  is  possible  that  some  such 
effort  would  have  been  made,  even  if  Christianity  had  not  been 
a  growing  force.     But  it  would  be  foolish  to  doubt  that  the 
pressure  of  Christianity  intensified  the  craving  for  religious 
help  and  hope,  and  did  something  to  give  shape  to  the  system. 
The  founder  of  the  school  was  Ammonius  Saccas, — said 
to  have  been  once  a  Christian.     For  us  he  is  a  name,  and 
little  more.     The  most  remarkable  personage,  and  the  first 
of  the  school  to  leave  writings,  was  Plotinus  (d.  269);  Por- 
phyry (233-305)  comes  next,  and  then  Jamblichus  (d.  330  ?). 
Proclus  (412-485)  was  perhaps  the  last  conspicuous  teacher ; 
but  the  school  continued  to  have  representatives  down  to 
the  time  of  the  Emperor  Justinian  (d.  565)  and  later.     In 
its  effort  to  combine  what  was  strongest,  both  in  the  various 
philosophies  and  in  the  traditional  religions.  New  Platonism 
met  a  prevailing  tendency,  and  it  might  hope  in  this  way 
to  create  something  like  conviction.     Nothing  tended  more 


148       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

to  engender  doubt  than  the  conflicts  of  the  schools  and  the 
variety  of  the  religions.  But  this  was  a  scheme  for  which 
its  supporters  claimed  a  common  consent  of  men ;  they  put 
it  forward  as  the  system  which  combines  all  the  philosophies 
and  explains  all  the  religions;  this  was  the  truth  which 
had  lived  in  them  all.  Perhaps  on  these  terms  a  sense  of 
rest  and  of  assurance  could  be  gained  for  men.  At  the 
same  time,  the  sufficiency  of  the  old  Greek  foundations 
was  virtually  maintained,  and  the  peremptory  claims  of 
Christianity  as  a  positive  revelation  were  rejected.  The 
New  Platonists  made  a  last  rally  for  the  old  world ;  they 
drew  into  their  line  of  battle  all  its  resources,  and  strove  to 
marshal  them  as  one  consistent  whole. 

Plato's  thinking  contemplated  the  world  as  the  realisa- 
tion of  supersensible  ideas  which  exist  in,  or  constitute,  an 
ideal  world.  The  divine  Being  therefore  was  the  Supreme 
mind, — the  home  and  fountain  of  ideas, — those  eternal  forms 
of  order,  goodness,  and  beauty  which  in  -this  world  are 
imperfectly  and  transiently  realised.  The  New  Platonism 
followed  the  same  track ;  but  it  tried  to  carry  speculative 
analysis  a  step  farther.  Plotinus  said,^  "  When  we  come  to 
feel  the  worth  of  our  own  soul,  we  cannot  but  ask  what  is 
that  universal  soul  which  breathes  life  into  ourselves  and 
into  all  nature  ?  Next  we  cannot  but  ask,  what  is  that  mind 
by  which  the  universal  soul  receives  and  preserves  its  own 
life-giving  power  ?  Lastly,  we  ask,  what  is  that  first  cause, 
that  supreme  unity  and  goodness  from  which  even  mind 
itself  has  birth  ? "  This  Unity  (to  ev\  therefore,  is  something 
more  abstract  and  inscrutable  than  mind ;  something  higher 
than  reason.  It  is  characterised  also  as  the  good, — but  good 
in  a  sense  that  transcends  all  types  of  goodness  known  to  us. 
From  this  first  energy  cannot  but  arise  all  that  is ;  the  One 
flows  forth  into  division  and  manifoldness ;  but  for  the  first 
two  stages,  in  the  reason  (1/01)9)  and  the  soul  {"^vx^)  ^^  ^^® 
universe,  a  certain  unity  and  a  certain  supreme  divinity 
remain.     These  three  therefore  {to  ei/,  b  1/01)9,  -q  •^v^v)  con- 

^  See  a  good  article  on  Neo-Platonism  by  Mozlej  in  Did,  of  Christian 
Biography. 


180-313]  THE   NEW   PHILOSOPHY  149 

stitute  the  Neo-Platonic  trinity.  From  this  point  multi- 
plicity comes  in,  and  we  have  passed  from  the  region  of 
supreme  divinity.  But  we  are  still  in  a  region  of  very  pure 
and  elevated  beings, — spirits  next  to  God, — some  invisible, 
some  identified  with  the  stars;  after  which  follow  daemons, 
who  are  superhuman  beings,  but  participant,  in  some  degree, 
of  sensuous  conditions.  Places  were  found  in  these  ranks 
of  intermediate  beings  for  the  gods  of  paganism.  Then 
came  men,  then  animals,  finally  mere  matter.  Spirit  alone 
has  true  existence ;  matter  is  rather  /Ltr/  6V,  a  kind  of  nega- 
tion of  existence,  which  is  supposed  to  arise  when  the  stream 
of  influence  has  proceeded  far  enough  from  its  source. 

So  far  Neo-Platonism  kept  hold  of  ancient  modes  of 
thought — it  presented  what  claimed  to  be  a  credible  theory 
of  existence.  At  the  same  time,  it  provided  a  basis  for  the 
accepted  forms  of  religion.  These  were  all  good  in  their 
way ;  for  the  daemons  who  occupied  the  stage  above  humanity 
had  been  allotted  to  preside  over  various  departments,  and 
had  been  worshipped  from  of  old  in  the  manner  suited  to 
them.  Such  worship  was  a  proper  tribute ;  only,  the  wise 
man  should  remember  that  not  much  was  to  be  expected 
from  the  worship  of  these  gods,  except  some  temporal  ad- 
vantages, along  with  a  certain  exercise  of  devout  feeling ;  and 
he  must  guard  always  against  excessive  superstition.  True 
fellowship  with  the  divine  nature  was  to  be  sought  on 
another  line.  Christianity  itself  could  have  a  place  con- 
ceded to  it,  in  so  far  as  Jesus,  according  to  the  New 
Platonists,  was  a  wise  man  who  had  anticipated  New  Pla- 
tonism  in  some  of  its  practical  aspects.  But  Christian 
religion,  as  it  affirmed  the  peculiar  glory  and  grace  of  Christ, 
and  set  itself  against  idolatry,  was  a  corruption  of  Christ's 
original  doctrine — a  vulgar  dogmatism  of  unintelligent  dis- 
ciples. 

Eeference  has  been  made  to  goodness,  to  ar^aOov^  as  an 
equivalent  of  supreme  Godhead.  The  intensely  real  exist- 
ence of  this  One  implies  goodness,  for  what  truly  exists  is 
truly  good-  Evil  is  not  a  positive  or  substantial  thing ;  it 
is  privation,  lack  of  reality.      Spirits,  however  inferior  to 


150       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

God  in  their  manner  of  being,  still  are, — are  participants  of 
vov<^  and  '^vxVi  ^^^  so  are  good,  and  can  own  relation  to 
the  One.  Matter,  as  already  said,  is  a  kind  of  negation  of 
existence,  and  here  therefore  evil  is  found ;  but  this  does 
not  directly  apply  to  material  substances  as  we  know  them, 
but  rather  to  that  ultimate  something  which  gives  to  all 
such  substances  their  common  nature  as  material.  The 
material  world  as  we  know  it  arises  by  the  agency  of  the 
true  existence  flowing  out  on  this  limiting  factor — or,  to 
change  the  figure,  by  the  light  of  existence  reflecting  itself 
in  this  region  of  negation. 

This  conception  of  evil  is  not  very  intense ;  and  the  mate- 
rial world  was  not  for  the  New  Platonists  an  object  of  scorn 
and  hate,  as  it  was  for  the  Gnostics.  The  world  had  to  be, 
and  it  was  all  right  in  its  place ;  it  was  as  good  as  it  could 
be.  Men,  pre-existing  as  spirits,  good  in  their  degree,  had 
a  legitimate  relation  to  this  world,  as  something  beneath 
them.  But  they  prove  liable  to  be  unduly  interested,  to  be 
too  much  attracted,  and  so  they  become  entangled  in  an 
earthly  existence,  and  are  so  far  participant  of  evil. 

The  proper  destiny,  however,  of  human  spirits  is  to  be 
.set  free  from  matter,  and  brought  finally  into  due  fellowship 
with  God.  The  discipline  of  earthly  life,  of  successive  or 
multiplied  lives  (hence  transmigration),  tends  this  way ;  it 
varies  according  to  men's  characters  and  deservings.  Mean- 
while the  truly  wise  man  can  attain  the  desirable  end  by  a 
shorter  road.  He  may  so  use  this  life  as  to  accelerate  the 
result,  or  even  secure  at  his  death  an  immediate  and  per- 
manent elevation  above  material  conditions ;  and  he  may 
attain  during  this  life  to  anticipations  of  the  mystic  fellowship 
with  God. 

At  this  point  the  system  prepared  itself  to  supply  a 
career  and  a  discipline,  involving  a  religious  experience,  and 
leading  up  to  final  well-being.^  Heretofore  in  Greek  philo- 
sophy what  had  been  set  down  for  the  conduct  of  life — what 
was  reckoned  good  for  man — was  mainly  to  live  rationally ; 
morals  were  reduced  to  that  consideration.  The  insub- 
^  Ovlj,  however,  for  select  men,  not  for  tlie  herd, 


180-313]  THE   NEW    PHILOSOPHY  151 

ordinate  and  irrational  elements  were  to  be  subjugated,  and 
life  conformed  to  an  ideal  type.  Among  the  later  Stoics 
this  moral  thinking  became  sutfused  with  a  faint  pathetic 
glow  of  trust  in  a  divine  presence  and  providence ;  but  it 
was  dim  and  distant.  Something  implying  a  more  decisive 
elevation  and  a  securer  goal  was  now  felt  to  be  needed. 

According  to  all  its  principles  and  its  reminiscences, 
New  Platonism  had  to  seek  what  at  this  point  it  wanted  in 
the  region  of  contemplation.  Contemplation  of  the  divine, 
which  is  as  much  as  to  say  contemplation  of  the  ideal,  must  be 
both  means  and  end.  But  into  this  contemplation  the  New 
Platonists  threw  a  mystic  element.  It  was  to  be  no  longer 
merely  the  thought  of  the  individual  thinker  brooding  on 
truth.  It  was  to  be  a  process  in  which  man's  consciousness 
should  meet  the  divine  consciousness, — or  the  divine  Some- 
thing which  is  above  all  consciousness, — the  one  entering 
into  the  other.  So  fellowship  with  the  divine  Being  is 
attained  and  realised. 

Here  was  set  the  type  of  a  kind  of  religious  exercise 
(proceeding  on  a  religious  theory)  which  was  taken  up  from 
the  New  Platonists  by  successive  Christian  schools ;  and  in 
some  ages  it  has  played  a  great  part.  Meditation  is  to  be 
directed  along  certain  lines,  while  outward  impressions  and, 
as  much  as  may  be,  our  own  individuality  are  to  be  sup- 
pressed. Thus  we  may  reach  a  state  in  which  we  find  the 
divine  energy  bearing  us  on  into  union  with  God.  The  eye 
of  the  body  must  be  closed,  and  the  eye  of  the  soul  opened. 
From  the  presence  of  the  manifold  world  we  must  draw 
inward,  fixing  the  mental  eye  on  forms  of  supersensible  truth 
and  beauty  and  goodness,  to  which  our  minds  by  their  origin 
are  akin.  The  human  soul  has  fallen  into  a  kind  of  cap- 
tivity to  mortal  and  material  conditions ;  but  the  forms  of 
truth  are,  after  all,  congenital  to  us ;  and  they  rise  in  their 
own  purity  to  the  vision  that  steadily  purges  itself  from  the 
influence  of  the  material  world. 

So  far,  however,  we  might  still  imagine  ourselves  to  be 
near  the  regions  of  the  old  philosophy.  But  now  three 
distinctive  elements  enter  into  the  scheme : — 


152  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHUPwCH  [a.d. 

1.  In  order  that  the  mental  eye  may  be  disposed  to 
fasten  on  its  proper  objects,  and  may  be  clear  of  hind- 
rances which  affect  it  in  its  present  state,  a  discipline  is 
required.  This  was,  in  general,  ascetic.  It  is  distinguish- 
able from  the  rational  life  recommended  by  the  older  schools. 
That  was  simple  and  sometimes  severe,  and  among  other 
benefits,  it  was  conceived  to  aid  in  strengthening  and  clearing 
the  mind ;  but  it  was  conceived  to  do  so  mainly  in  the  way 
in  which  sincerity,  and  fidelity  to  accepted  principles,  neces- 
sarily give  health  to  the  inward  man.  The  ascetic  disci- 
pline of  the  New  Platonists  was  meant  to  fit  the  mind  for 
a  peculiar  process,  which  gives  access  to  an  upper  world. 

2.  The  ideas  or  forms  of  truth  and  goodness  are  con- 
ceived in  a  mystic  manner,  as  entrancing  the  soul  with  a 
contemplative  amorousness,  tending  to  enthusiasm,  yearning, 
ecstasy.  As  the  ideal  forms  come  into  view  a  Presence  makes 
itself  felt  behind  them ;  they  are  heralding  an  influence,  a  life 
beyond  themselves.  The  system  is  here  preparing  to  take 
wing  from  the  merely  rational  or  speculative  region,  and  to 
rise  into  devout  experience  and  satisfaction. 

3.  The  object  that  is  all  along  in  view  determines  these 
efforts.  That  object  is,  to  rise  into  the  region  of  divine 
existence  that  we  may  share  its  pure  life,  the  human  con- 
sciousness merging  itself  in  something  higher,  and  touching 
at  last  the  Highest.  This  goal  of  all,  which  in  this  life  for 
the  most  part  is  only  apprehended  and  aspired  after,  very 
rarely  attained,  determines  the  character  and  direction  of 
the  lower  steps  and  stages ;  the  disciple  fits  himself  to  rise 
into  final  union  with  the  inscrutable  Unity — the  eternal  and 
absolute  One.  He,  indeed,  is  above  all  thought;  so  con- 
templation can  never  reach  Him.  But  a  mystic  experience 
or  intuition  is  possible,  in  which,  from  the  last  heights  of 
contemplation,  we  rise  into  the  ineffable  fellowship,  and  lose 
ourselves  in  the  One.  This  ecstatic  state  is  the  crown  of 
all  attainment;  it  anticipates  the  experience  which  awaits 
the  wise  and  good  when  the  bonds  of  sense  shall  be  broken. 
Plotinus,  it  was  said,  reached  this  experience  four  times  in 
the  course  of  his  life,  and  Porphyry  once. 


180-313]  THE  NEW  PHILOSOPHY  153 

The  preliminary  discipline  prescribed  for  the  preparatory 
stage  was,  according  to  the  proper  theory  of  the  system, 
purely  negative ;  it  was  to  remove  from  the  soul  what  might 
hinder  the  positive  progress  which  was  desired.  But  it 
could  easily  be  stretched  so  as  to  include  any  practical  ele- 
ments likely  to  contribute  to  the  dignity  or  the  promise  of 
the  system.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  scheme  in  this  depart- 
ment borrowed  largely  from  Christianity,  and  appropriated 
to  its  own  purposes  phrases  and  ideas  which  it  could  not 
have  excogitated.^  At  the  same  time,  it  is  perhaps  true  that 
moral  culture  was  not  the  strong  point  of  New  Platonism. 
These  teachers  certainly  desired  pure  and  noble  life,  and 
some  of  them  exemplified  it.  But  enthusiasm  for  morals 
gave  way  to  enthusiasm  for  the  mystic  process,  which  was 
to  rise  alike  above  the  moralities  and  the  intellectualities. 

The  second  element  of  those  specified  above — contempla- 
tion of  the  ideal  as  a  world  of  entrancing  divine  beauty — 
could  inspire  enthusiasm,  rising  in  devout  natures  into  a  kind 
of  worship ;  but,  in  practice,  this  mood  could  not  easily  be 
sustained  in  so  thin  an  air.  The  third  element,  the  mystic 
self-identification  with  supreme  Godhead  in  a  region  above 
reason,  opened  the  door  to  nervous  trances.  Here  the  weak- 
ness of  the  scheme  is  revealed.  While  human  nature  was 
longing  for  *  some  substantial  communication  from  above, 
New  Platonism,  like  the  other  philosophies,  could  only  pro- 
vide for  the  mind*s  exercising  itself  upon  its  own  ideas. 
Attempting  something  more,  it  sank,  and  crowned  its  superb 
idealism  with  an  ecstasy  which  depended  very  often  on 
morbid  physical  conditions.  On  this,  too,  there  followed  a 
wider  range  of  misleading  superstition.  Admit  the  process 
of  attaining  to  God  to  be  never  so  authentic,  yet  success  in 
it  was  rare ;  and  for  most  natures  this  inscrutable  Unity, 
possessed  of  no  determinate  attribute  to  distinguish  it,  or 
Him,  from  mere  void,  could  give  little  satisfaction.  There- 
fore, though  He  (or  it)  is  highest  of  all,  might  not  men,  even 
the  wisest  men,  advantageously  seek  communion  with  some 

*  See  Porphyry's  Ep.  ad  Marcellam  (tna  wife),  ed.  H.  Mai,  1810,  which  was 
taken  at  first  to  be  a  Christian  document. 


154  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHCJRCH  [a.d. 

of  those  intermediate  daemons,  and  find  them  to  be  in  a  sense 
mediators,  steps  towards  what  is  highest  ?  And  would  not 
this  afford  more  real  satisfaction,  a  sense  of  warm  and  real 
presence,  of  living  ones  bending  from  above,  not  so  far 
removed  from  men  themselves  ?  From  the  first,  or  nearly 
from  the  first,  it  had  been  admitted  among  the  New  Pla- 
tonists  that  certain  magic  rites — theurgic  ceremonies  and 
processes — could  lend  aid  to  the  disciple ;  if  they  did  not 
positively  raise  the  spirit  Godwards,  yet  they  could  purge 
and  dispose  the  material  conditions  of  human  nature,  and 
so  remove  hindrances  to  the  spirit's  upward  flight.  But 
might  not  such  processes  do  more  ?  Might  they  not  avail 
to  bring  nigh  to  us  some  of  those  intermediate  yet  lofty 
spirits,  helping  us  to  discern  them  and  hold  communion 
with  them  ?  The  place  which  New  Platonism  gave  to  the 
popular  worships  favoured  such  suggestions.  Entering  by 
this  door,  mere  superstition  and  magic  made  good  their 
footing. 

The  New  Platonism  is  considered  and  represented  here 
mainly  in  relation  to  the  claims  and  the  competition  of 
Christianity.^  It  was  a  great  and  memorable  effort.  For 
it,  God  transcends  all  thought  inconceivably;  He  is  that 
intense  reality  and  goodness  in  which  existence  culminates. 
All  that  really  is  derives  goodness  from  Him ;  and  in  some 
wonderful  way  a  consciousness  of  God  is  attainable  which  is 
victory,  emancipation,  and  blessedness.  The  progress  towards 
this  goal  and  the  attainment  of  it  give  life  a  consecration, 
and  tinge  it  or  bathe  it  in  a  religious  experience ;  and  yet 
all  is  based  professedly  on  reason, — on  a  just  perception  and 
estimate  of  spiritual  possibilites  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the 
sensible  world  on  the  other.  Along  with  this  idealism  the 
sensible  world  retains,  for  the  New  Platonists,  all  the  good- 
ness a  sensible  world  can  have.  Its  basis,  indeed,  is  an 
element  which  is  the  negation  of  true  existence,  and  so  the 
negation  of  good ;  yet  into  this  is  thrown  from  the  higher 

1  Plotinus  seems  to  avoid  direct  attack  on  Christianity,  though  he  criti- 
cises Gnosticism.  Porphyry's  attack,  in  fifteen  books,  was  able.  icarA  "jipw- 
Tiavuv  \6yoi  vePTeKaideKa.     Opusc,  ed.  Nauck,  1866. 


180-313]  THE   NEW    PHILOSOPHY  155 

region  as  much  of  light  as  can  be  reflected  from  it.  That 
which  is  lowest  and  worst  has  an  aspect  towards  something 
higher,  towards  the  highest.  The  true  view  of  man  and 
man's  surroundings  calls  him  to  a  career  than  which  none 
could  be  better  or  higher. 

This  vision  was  presented  so  as  to  supersede  the  unwel- 
come "  vulgarities  "  of  positive  revelation  ;  it  dismissed  the 
thought  of  God  interposing  to  save  the  world  at  a  certain 
recent  date,  and  by  an  individual  man,  and  rejected  the  idea 
of  adhering  to  the  cause  of  a  crucified  Jew.  Instead  of 
these  "foolishnesses,"  Plotinus  retained  the  ancient  grand 
and  calm  foundation  ;  he  rested  his  teaching  on  the  nature 
of  the  universe  studied  and  considered  by  the  reason  of 
man.  And  he  represented  God's  relation  to  the  world  and 
to  human  souls  as  for  ever  equal  to  itself;  yet  on  this 
foundation  he  teaches  that  God  can  be  found. 

Meanwhile  also  the  old  worships  were  retained:  they 
were  to  have  a  place,  though  not  the  highest.^  Even  the 
magic  and  the  marvels  of  legend  could  be  welcomed ;  they 
were  eddies  in  that  wondrous  stream  of  sympathetic  influ- 
ence which  binds  together  all  being  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest.  It  was  contrary  to  the  whole  genius  of  the  system 
to  admit  the  idea  of  an  individual  Saviour.  Yet  against 
the  influence  exerted  by  the  life  of  Christ,  it  was  felt  needful 
to  present  religious  individualities  like  Apollonius  of  Tyana 
as  carrying  an  exceptional  influence  from  the  unseen  world, 
and  attracting  and  justifying  human  trust.^ 

This  way  of  thinking  supplied,  during  several  genera- 
tions, the  intellectual  basis  for  those  who,  rejecting  Chris- 
tianity, clinging  to  the  spirit  of  the  classic  literature,  and 
making  the  best  of  the  world  as  it  was,  still  wished  to  have 
life  ennobled  and  idealised.  It  was  accepted  by  several  of 
the  Eoman  emperors  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  third  century, 

*  Thongh  Plotinus  teaches  a  Supr-eme  Unity  his  system  is  Pantheistic, 
and  his  sympathies  are  with  Polytheism.  **  To  think  worthily  of  God  is  not 
to  shut  Mm  up  into  a  unity,  but  to  display  divinity  as  manifold.'"' 

2  Apollonius  was  one  of  the  philosophico-religious  adventurers  of  the  time. 
His  life  was  idealised  and  put  in  literary  form  by  Philostratus. 


156  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH     [a.d.  180-313 

disposing  them  on  the  whole  to  be  hospitable  to  all  religions, 
as,  all  alike,  variations  on  one  fundamental  theme.  From 
this  it  sometimes  followed  that  Christianity  should  be  gently 
treated;  but  sometimes  also,  chiefly  with  those  who  saw 
deeper,  that  Christianity,  as  the  most  dangerous  foe  of  this 
philosophy,  should  be  rebuked  and  punished  for  its  obstinate 
and  peremptory  claims.  For  Neo-Platonism,  though  willing 
to  provide  an  honourable  place  for  Christ,  dreaded  and 
detested  the  conquering  might  of  Christ's  religion.  Julian, 
in  the  next  century,  was  the  complete  embodiment  in  a 
Eoman  ruler  of  the  spirit  of  the  New  Platonism.  In  a  word, 
this  system  became  the  storehouse  from  which  cultivated 
men,  who  would  not  be  Christians,  drew  plausible  and  attract- 
ive thoughts  in  the  degree  in  which  they  felt  it  helpful  to 
do  so,  either  to  vindicate  or  to  dignify  their  lives. 

But  the  power  of  Neo-Platonism  to  hold  and  stir  the 
minds  of  men,  appears  most  strikingly  in  the  influence  it 
exerted  on  Christians.  Its  doctrines  could  be  appropriated 
on  the  side  on  which  they  approached  the  Christian  posi- 
tions. It  conceived  all  existence  to  be  related  to  the 
supreme  existence,  and  pointed  to  that  relation  as  in  some 
way  the  source  and  pledge  of  well-being.  To  many  this 
seemed  the  true  point  of  departure  in  efforts  to  harmonise 
faith  and  reason.  The  conception  of  evil,  as  in  itself 
nothing, — rather  the  negation  or  privation  of  true  being, — 
fascinated  Christian  thinkers  who  were  striving  with  the 
question  of  the  whence  and  the  whither  of  evil.  And  the 
method  of  retreat  inwards  from  the  world  of  sense  upon  the 
great  ideals,  in  the  faith  that  in  and  behind  them  we  shall 
feel  the  pulse  of  the  eternal  life  of  Godhead,  was  embraced 
by  one  Christian  school  after  another.  In  all  these  points 
men  seemed  to  meet  with  something  true,  so  set  forth  that  it 
seized  and  held  them.  The  idealism  could  be  appropriated 
and  the  methodism  could  be  baptized.  Origen,  Basil  of 
Csesarea,  Synesius,  Augustine,  are  early  instances  of  various 
forms  of  this  influence.  And  though  Neo-Platonism  as  a 
school  disappeared,  the  influence  of  it  as  an  element  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  has  been  recognisable  at  all  periods. 


CHAPTER   X 

Christian  Thought  and  Literature 

See  works  on  Patristic  Literature,  p.  50.    On  special  schools,  literature 
is  noted  below. 

Christian  apologetic  continued  to  be  more  or  less  active 
on  the  old  lines :  that  is,  we  have  works  that  attack  the 
popular  idolatry,  and  defend  Christianity  against  current 
objections.  Hermias,  Arnobius,  Lactantius  may  be  named. 
Some  place  Minucius  Felix  in  this  period.  The  A\r]6r}^ 
Aoyo^  of  Celsus  elicited  a  notable  reply  from  Origen.^ 
The  attack  of  Porphyry  (d.  304)  was  met  by  Christian 
controversialists  of  the  next  period  (Methodius,  Eusebius, 
Apollinarius,  Philostorgius) ;  that  of  Hierocles  by  Eusebius, 
and,  perhaps,  Macarius  Magnes. 

But  with  the  opening  of  our  period  a  great  literature 
begins,  embodying  the  thoughts  of  leading  Christian  minds 
upon  their  own  religion.  Irenaeus,  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
Origen,  Tertullian,  Hippolytus,  Cyprian  are  the  most  im- 
portant names;  Gains,  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  Gregory 
Thaumaturgus,  Julius  Africa  nus,  Commodian,  Novatian,  Vic- 
torinus,  Pamphilus,  Methodius,  Lucian  of  Antioch  are  also 
remembered.  The  central  impulse  was  the  stimulus  which 
Christianity  applied  to  moral  and  intellectual  life ;  but  this 
in  turn  was  powerfully  affected  by  the  Gnostic  and  other 
theories  which  had  been  suggested  within  the  Church,  and 
also  by  the  attitude  and  movement  of  the  non- Christian 
minds  with  which  Christians  had  to  reckon.  All  that  is 
gi'eatest  in  this  literature  had  been  produced  before  a.d.  230  ; 
the  remaining  years  of  the  period  are  marked  by  smaller 

^  Patrick,  The  Apology  ^  Origen  in  Reply  to  Celsw,  Edin.  and  London,  1892. 

167 


158       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

names,  and  have  left  us  comparatively  little.  The  wave  of 
effort  rose  and  died  away,  to  be  succeeded  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury by  another,  which  spread  wider  and  endured  longer. 

This  literature  is  conveniently  divided  into  three  schools. 
In  examining  the  special  bent  which  distinguishes  each  of 
them,  we  must  not  fail  to  appreciate  the  remarkable  agree- 
ment which  unites  them  all.  They  all  (against  the  Gnostics) 
received  the  Old  Testament,  the  ancient  Scriptures,  as 
sanctioned  by  the  Lord  and  His  apostles.  They  all  agree 
in  a  free  use  of  allegorical  interpretation  of  it,  though  (at 
least  till  Origen)  they  had  no  determinate  principles  to 
guide  them  in  the  matter.  Allegory  did  not  imply  a  dis- 
position to  question  the  truth  of  the  literal  history ;  but  as 
Christianity  has  at  length  revealed  the  true  mind  of  God, 
who  is  unchangeable.  His  Spirit  must  have  been  intent  of 
old  on  the  same  things  which  are  now  beUeved  among  us. 
The  inference  was  that  the  Old  Testament  must  be  pervaded 
throughout  by  Christian  meanings,  and  that  it  is  now  the 
privilege  of  Christians  to  discern  and  expound  them. 

The  life  and  teaching  of  our  Lord  were,  of  course,  central 
for  His  followers.  A  wealth  of  information  on  this  subject 
existed  in  various  forms,  not  all  equally  reliable — tradi- 
tions, narratives,  collections  of  sayings.  During  the  second 
century  the  four  Gospels  had  been  everywhere  received  as 
the  authoritative  sources,  and  a  divine  wisdom  was  recog- 
nised in  furnishing  the  Church  with  these  and  no  more.^ 
The  Epistles  also  of  the  apostles  had  now  been  sedulously 
gathered,  discriminated,  and  formed  into  a  collection.* 

1  Irenseus,  Ref.  iii.  12.  8. 

2  The  limits  of  the  New  Testament  Canon  were  not  drawn  quite  in  the 
same  way  in  every  Church  nor  by  every  writer,  but  the  general  position  was 
common  to  all.  It  will  not  be  denied  that  Irenseus  holds  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles  as  settled  Christian  authorities.  So  also  Clement  clearly  recognised 
the  principle  of  the  New  Testament  Canon  {Strom,  vii.  16).  It  may  still  be 
questioned  whether  the  authoritative  writings  of  the  New  Covenant  had  come 
to  be  regarded  exactly  in  the  same  way  as  those  of  the  Old  were.  As  to  this, 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  mere  antiquity  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  also 
the  wa}^  in  which  it  was  held  to  speak  from  that  antiquity  to  a  far  later  age, 
snggested  something  peculiarly  miraculous.  The  authority  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment writings  was  not  less,  but  they  impressed  the  mind  differently.     They 


180-313]      CHRISTIAN   THOUGHT   AND    LITERATURE  159 

Something  shorter  and  simpler,  however,  was  available 
to  indicate  the  outline  and  basis  of  Christian  religion,  and 
this,  too,  was  matter  of  substantial  agreement  among  the 
writers  before  us.  The  Gnostic  speculations  claimed  to 
be  Christian,  and  proposed  to  set  forth  a  profounder  in- 
terpretation of  the  Christian  writings.  They  claimed,  too, 
the  possession  of  secret  traditions  by  which  the  deeper 
teaching  of  the  apostles  had  been  transmitted  to  the  Gnostic 
leaders  of  the  second  century,  and  they  named  the  persons 
through  whom  those  traditions  came.  It  was  perfectly 
reasonable  to  set  against  these  claims  the  public  and 
notorious  tradition  of  the  churches,  especially  of  the  greater 
and  older  churches.  This  tradition  was  a  fact  of  first-rate 
value  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century.  If  the  whole 
literature  of  Wesleyanism  were  suddenly  annihilated,  the 
consent  of  the  greater  and  older  Methodist  congregations 
would  to-day  b^.  excellent  proof  of  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  body.  Just  so  if,  in  the  middle  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, a  man  came  to  Kome  with  a  system  which,  in  its 
essentials,  was  a  novelty  among  Koman  Christians,  that 
system  might  be  never  so  admirable,  but  it  could  not  be 
Christianity.  For  people  knew  in  Eome  what  had  been 
taught  for  Christianity  to  their  fathers  and  grandfathers. 

The  churches  are  believed  on  good  grounds  to  have  had 
forms  of  baptismal  confession,  agreeing  pretty  nearly  though 
with  verbal  differences.  But  the  early  writers  of  our  period 
appeal  especially  to  what  they  call  the  rcgula  or  standard 
of  belief.  As  already  explained,^  this  is  a  statement  of 
Christian  fundamentals,  but  with  no  fixed  form  of  words, 
so  that  a  given  writer  may  sometimes  amplify  the  statement 
and   sometimes  condense  it.       Either   way   one  feels  that 

spoke  mostly  straightforward  religion  and  morality,  while  tliose  of  the  Old 
Testan.eiit  spoke  also  mysteries,  symbols,  oracles.  Let  anyone  observe,  for 
example,  how  the  Old  Testament  relates  itself  to  such  a  mind  as  Origen's 
(De  PriTuyipiis,  iv.  23  al.).  Now,  on  the  Old  Testament,  Origen  did  not  occupy 
a  position  substantially  different  from  that  of  other  Christians,  only  he  was 
more  inquisitive,  suggestive,  and  intense.  He  extended  the  allegorical  prin- 
ciple to  the  New  Testament  also  ;  but  that  was  not  the  earlier  view. 
*  ArUe,  p.  74. 


160       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

the  writer  is  not  merely  conscious  of  phrases  in  a  creed, 
but  of  a  way  of  thinking  and  feeling  regarding  those  great 
articles  to  which  he  may  confidently  appeal.  Origen  calls 
this  rule  also  Krjpvy^a,  the  Church's  proclamation.  Whether 
shorter  or  longer,  the  regula  is  understood  to  apply  only  to 
fundamentals  like  those  in  what  is  called  the  Apostles* 
Creed.  On  points  more  specific  no  uncontradicted  common 
consent  was  available.  They  had  to  be  determined  from 
apostolic  teaching  and  from  the  analogy  of  the  faith.^ 

Therefore  a  common  attitude  towards  the  faith  and  a 
common  sentiment  about  it  belong  to  all  the  writers  now 
before  us.  For  all  of  them  Christ  is  pre-existent  in  the 
divine  nature ;  is  identified  with  the  Logos,  who  has  given 
being  and  laws  to  the  universe ;  has  become  man,  being  born 
of  the  Virgin ;  has  ascribed  to  Him  at  once  the  divine  glory 
and  the  human  lowliness;  also,  was  and  is  at  once  Word 
and  Son.  With  the  Father  and  Son  is  associated  the  Spirit, 
who  dwells  in  Christ  and  dwells  in  the  Church  as  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  who  w^as  concerned  specially  in  the  preparation  of 
Christ's  human  nature,  and  who  is  the  immediate  source  of 
all  hallowing  influences.  The  prophets,  who  prepared  the  way 
for  the  coming  of  Christ,  spoke  by  the  same  Spirit.  Christ  by 
His  incarnation  and  sacrifice,  has  brought  in  the  forgiveness 
of  sins,  has  opened  to  us  a  way  and  a  hope  of  salvation 
through  repentance,  has  called  us  to  holiness  in  the  fellow- 
ship and  under  the  influences  and  ordinances  of  His  Church. 
The  hope  which  awaits  the  faithful  is  that  of  perfect  purity 
and  great  blessedness.  For  evil-doers  is  appointed  a  con- 
demnation which  the  common  teaching,  echoing  the  language 
of  the  New  Testament,  represented  as  hopeless.  Only  the 
esoteric  teaching  of  leading  Alexandrians  spoke  of  it  as  a 
purifying  pain  which  could  not  but  at  last  achieve  its 
end. 

ilrenseus,  i.  1,  and  i.  10.  1 ;  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  vL  p.  803  {  Tert  ^ 
PrcBscr,  0.  13 ;  Origen,  de  FriTic.  L,  Ftcb/,  4-9. 


180-318]  SCHOOL   OF   ALEXANDRIA  161 


1,  School  of  Alexandria 

Clemens  (Titus  Flavius)  Alexandrinus,  Opera^  Potter,  Oxf.  1716 ; 
Dindorf,  Oxf.  1868 ;  Migne,  Paris,  2  vols.  1857,  transl.  in 
Anle-Nicene  Fathers,  Edin.  The  chief  writings  are  the  Protrepticus, 
the  Pmdagogus,  and  the  Stromata.  Origen,  Opera,  De  la  Rue, 
Paris,  4  vols.  fol.  1733-59  ;  reprinted  by  Lommatzsch,  25  vols.  12mo^ 
Berol.  1831-48.  Thomasius,  Origenes,  Niirnberg,  1837.  Redo- 
penning,  Origenes,  2  vols.,  Bonn,  1841-46.  We  owe  also  to 
Redepenning  a  very  useful  edition  of  the  Ilepi  Ap^w*  Lips.  1836. 
Bigg,  Cfvristian  Platonists  of  Alexandriay  Oxf.  1886.  De  Pressens^ 
Eist&ire  du  trois  premih-es  Sibcles  de  VEglise^  Paris,  1861,  2me  serie, 
vol.  ii 

We  begin  with  the  Alexandrians.  In  their  hands  the 
work  of  the  Apologists  was  followed  up  in  a  profoundly 
sympathetic  spirit.  In  illustrating  the  place  and  worth  of 
Christianity,  they  aim  at  doing  justice  to  the  better  thought 
and  life  of  the  pagan  world.  Pantsenus  is  reported  as  the 
earliest  representative  of  the  School ;  but  he  left  no  writings. 
For  our  purpose  he  is  merged  in  his  disciple,  Clement. 

Clement's  birth  can  hardly  have  fallen  earlier  than  A.D. 
150  or  later  than  160.  While  still  ignorant  of  Christ,  he 
had  devoted  himself  to  philosophy ;  and  Neander  has  aptly 
suggested  that  the  sketch  of  such  a  career,  put  into  the 
mouth  of  Clemens  Eomanus  in  the  Eecognitions,^  might  well 
enough  describe  the  actual  career  of  his  Alexandrian 
namesake.  After  he  came  under  Christian  influences,  he 
continued  to  be  a  seeker,  wandering  to  and  fro  in  search  of 
the  wisest  and  most  helpful  teachers.  He  commemorates 
some  with  special  gratitude, — one  from  Syria  whom  he  met 
in  Greece,^  one  from  Egypt  whom  he  met  in  Magna  Grsecia.* 
Others  he  encountered  in  the  East.  Lastly,  in  Alexandria 
he  comes  upon  Pantaenus,  "  the  true  Sicilian  bee,  gathering 
spoil  from  the  flowers  of  the  prophetic  and  apostolic 
meadow";  and  now  he  found  rest. 

Pantsenus,  who  came  to  Christianity  through  a  Stoio 
training,  held  an  interesting  position.     Alexandria  was  at 

^  See  anUy  Chap.  I.  p.  21.  *  Tatian  has  been  suggested. 

•  Perhaps  Theodotus. 


162       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

once  an  important  provincial  capital,  a  great  commercial 
centre,  and  the  seat  of  a  remarkable  school  of  learning. 
Many  streams  flowed  together  in  its  population  ;  and  all  that 
was  plausible  in  speculation  found  disciples  and  expositors. 
The  need  had  been  felt  of  setting  apart  someone  who  knew 
how  minds  were  working,  and  who  was  qualified  to  deal 
with  them,  in  order  to  train  those  who  at  Alexandria 
were  entertaining  the  question  of  Christian  discipleship. 
So  the  catechetical  School  had  special  significance  there, 
and  Pantffinus  was  at  the  head  of  it.  His  philosophy 
apparently  did  not  chill  his  Christianity;  for,  by  and  by, 
he  left  the  libraries,  the  society,  and  the  disputations  of  the 
city,  to  go  on  missionary  work  among  uncultivated  people. 
This  may  have  taken  place  about  A.D.  189.  Then  probably 
Clement  succeeded  him.  In  a.d.  202  the  persecution  under 
Alexander  Sever  us  drove  Clement  from  Alexandria.  Perhaps 
he  returned  before  his  death,  which  is  usually  dated  about 
A.D.  220. 

Clement  brought  to  the  service  of  Christianity  a  full 
and  ready  mind.  No  one  of  his  time  has  quoted  so  largely 
from  the  store  of  Greek  literature.  He  loved  beauty  and 
goodness,  and  he  found  their  traces  everywhere :  accord- 
ingly, he  counted  on  a  response  from  human  hearts,  when 
appealed  to  in  the  name  of  beauty,  and  goodness,  and  God. 
The  position  in  which  he  was  placed,  and  the  work  he 
had  to  do,  called  upon  him  to  present  Christianity  to  his 
hearers  as  the  crown  of  all  worthy  human  thoughts  :  it 
was  a  creed  in  harmony  with  all  that  men  had  found  to  be 
valid,  supplying  what  men  had  felt  to  be  lacking.  Clement 
believed  all  this ;  he  devoted  his  resources  to  make  it  good ; 
and  in  so  doing  he  set  the  type  of  the  earlier  Alexandrian 
Christian  teaching. 

He  took  up  afresh  thoughts  we  have  already  met  with 
in  Justin  Martyr ;  but  he  presented  his  case  with  more 
wealth  of  suggestion  and  more  warmth  of  appeal.  He  had 
little  value  for  continuous  exposition ;  on  the  contrary, 
his  convictions  gush  up  in  a  kind  of  fortuitous  disorder. 
His  great  successor,   Origen,  was   to   state  the  case  with 


180-S13]  SCHOOL   OF   ALEXANDRIA  163 

more  argumentative  power,  more  continuity  of  thought, 
more  patient  working  out  of  detail ;  also  with  astonishing 
subtlety  of  speculation.  But  Clement  retains  a  charm 
of  his  own — the  charm  of  the  impressionist.  And  the 
aim  of  Clement,  not  less  than  of  Origen,  is  to  present  a 
clear  intellectual  conception  of  Christianity.  That  was 
dictated  by  the  situation  in  which  both  teachers  found 
themselves.  They  had  to  commend  Christianity  to  men 
sharing  the  culture  of  the  time,  and  interested  in  the 
questions  which  it  raised.  To  influence  such  men,  to  grasp 
them  permanently,  intellectual  method  must  come  clearly 
into  play,  and  ideals  must  be  presented  and  pressed.  Again, 
Christianity  had  to  be  exhibited  as  tenable  against  the 
philosophies  which  claimed  to  embody  all  that  was  discover- 
able of  the  good,  the  true,  the  fair.  Christianity  must 
either  own  a  certain  helplessness  as  compared  with  them, 
or  must  transcend  them  and  beat  them  on  their  own  ground. 
Again,  Christianity  at  that  time  had  to  be  stated  as  distin- 
guished and  as  vindicated  from  Gnosticism.  Now  Gnosticism 
presented  a  conception,  and  so  far  a  solution,  of  the  great 
problem — the  being,  the  history,  the  catastrophe  of  the  world. 
There  were  various  Gnostic  schemes,  but  all  worked  with 
the  same  materials,  and  on  similar  lines.  The  best  way  of 
ousting  all  these  was  to  present  the  true  Gnosis,  embody- 
ing elements  which,  if  once  accepted,  must  explode  all 
the  Gnosticisms.  It  may  be  added,  that  the  Gnostic 
theories  were  recognised  already  as  only  one  large  and 
rank  species  imder  the  general  head  of  heresies.  These 
were  forms  of  thought  which  claimed  the  Christian  name, 
had  affinities  on  some  sides  with  Christian  faith  and 
feeling,  and  yet  proved  irreconcilable  with  great  and 
permanent  convictions  on  which  Christian  faith  and  life 
rested.  These  schemes  could  be  encountered  in  detail. 
But  to  the  whole  class,  Christians  were  beginning  to  ascribe 
a  common  character,  for  they  associated  them  all  with  ideas 
of  wanton  fancifulness  and  insubordinate  self-will.  It  was 
natural  to  think,  then,  that,  in  contrast  to  all  these,  the 
genuine  Christianity  could  be  set  forth  on  grand  lines  of 


164  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

thought,  —  few,  sufficient,  self-evidencing, — and  so  might 
take  possession  of  the  minds  of  men,  convincing  and  steady- 
ing. Perhaps  this  remark  applies  more  to  Clement :  Origen's 
theorising,  which  aims  at  the  same  object,  is  not  quite  so 
simple ;  he  is  more  prone  to  theoretic  detail 

For  Clement,  Christianity  is  first  and  chiefly  the  coming 
of  the  Logos  into  the  world,  in  the  person  of  Christ.  He 
had  been  in  the  world  before ;  for  as  He  made  all,  and  is 
the  sustaining  reason  of  the  universe,  so  He  has  never 
failed  to  solicit  human  minds  with  truth.  The  whole  history 
of  the  race  bears  token  of  His  presence.  Yet  this  ministra- 
tion, though  it  had  many  eminent  fruits,  was  not  sufficient 
for  the  highest  ends, — it  was  not  sufficient  to  bring  about 
complete  agreement  with  God,  nor  to  open  the  gates  of  the 
true  blessedness.  It  is  the  ministration  of  the  Word  as 
actually  come  among  us  in  His  incarnation,  revealing  and 
attracting,  which  proves  able  to  flood  the  soul  with  light ; 
it  is  this  that  persuades  us  to  make  the  decisions  in  which 
we  become  completely  His  disciples  and  His  friends. 

But  that  result  does  not  come  to  pass  with  all,  even  of 
those  whom  the  message  of  Jesus  reaches.  The  reason  is 
that  men  cannot  be  absolutely  swayed  by  any  power,  not 
even  by  Truth  itself  in  its  clearest  dispensation.  Men  can 
shut  the  door  against  it,  or  can  detain  it  in  unrighteousness. 
For  Will  is  an  essential  feature  in  human  nature,  and  the 
essence  of  Will  is  to  be  free, — it  is  always  free.  Being  so, 
it  can  reject  reason  and  prefer  unreason.  Still,  the  human 
heart  feels  that  Truth  has  a  claim  to  be  heard  and  welcomed, 
and  even  perverse  wills  must  in  some  measure  own  this. 
Hence  the  importance  of  that  divine  ministry  of  truth  and 
discipline  combined,  which  not  only  carries  on  the  culture 
of  those  who  have  believed,  but  also  besets  the  unbelieving 
with  successive  lessons  and  with  fresh  motives,  so  that  they 
may  yet  surrender  to  that  which  they  have  resisted. 

Hence,  then,  comes  the  division  between  those  who  have 
received  the  light  and  those  who  resist  it.  What  the  final 
issue  of  this  division  shall  be  is  not  so  clear  in  Clement. 
Probably  he,  like  Origen,  looked  for  a  final  victory  of  light 


180-313]  SCHOOL   OF   ALEXANDRIA  165 

over  all  natures  capable  of  light,  however  long  continued 
the  processes  of  discipline  might  have  to  be,  by  which  that 
victory  should  be  attained.  At  all  events,  over  against  this 
array  of  human  wills,  with  their  responsibilities  and  their 
persistent  freedom,  stands  the  divine  equity,  always  aiming 
at  men's  welfare,  but  steadily  aiming  at  it  by  dealing  with 
men  according  to  their  desert.  Hence  all  conditions  and 
all  distinctions  among  men  are  finally  accounted  for  by 
this,  that  their  merits  have  so  determined  for  them.  Will 
is  continually  confronted  by  justice  with  its  discipline; 
it  always  encounters  the  lessons  which  ought  to  be  pre- 
scribed to  it ;  yet  it  retains  always  its  inherent  freedom  to 
make  its  own  decisions.  This  BiKaLoavvij  a(i)T'^pi,o<s  of  God, 
taking  relation  to  the  avroe^ovaia  of  man,  is  the  abiding 
key  to  the  moral  history  of  the  w^orld  and  of  all  individual 
souls. 

If  it  be  asked  how  those  are  justly  dealt  with  who  died 
before  the  Saviour  came,  or  who  have  never  heard  of  Him, — 
some  of  whom  searched  for  truth  so  earnestly, — the  answer 
is  that  for  the  purposes  of  salvation  the  truth  they  attained 
was  insufficient;  but  nothing  hinders  the  divine  equity  to 
prolong  their  training  after  death,  and  to  vouchsafe  to  them 
revelations,  and  guide  them  to  decisions,  in  which  they 
may  reach  the  level  of  believing  and  baptized  Christians. 

It  is  admitted,  however,  that  Truth  and  Goodness  not 
only  have  existed  before  Christ  came,  but  they  have  swelled 
into  great  proportions.  They  have  done  so  chiefly  on  two 
lines,  the  Jewish  and  the  Greek.  These  were  the  historical 
preparations  for  the  great  advent.  Greek  thought,  as  well 
as  the  Jewish  law,  was  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  to 
Christ. 

On  this  scheme  the  view  to  be  taken  of  the  material 
world  is  not  the  Gnostic  view, — that  it  originates  in  a  fall, — 
but  mainly  this,  that  it  is  subservient  to  the  trial  and  the 
discipline  of  spiritual  beings.  For  this  purpose  it  is  fitting 
and  good.  The  natural  result  of  this  explanation  would  be 
to  regard  everything  material  as  transient.  Clement  does 
not  say  so ;  but  perhaps  he  betrays  the  pressure  of  a  tend- 


166       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

ency  in  this  direction.  He  held  the  incarnation  and  the 
resurrection;  but  touches  of  docetic  tendency  occur  here 
and  there  in  his  references  to  Christ's  human  nature ;  and 
one  does  not  see  that  the  resurrection  holds  any  important 
place  in  his  thinking. 

Clement's  teaching  placed  Christianity  in  a  setting 
which  had  various  advantages.  It  presented  a  tenable  way 
of  thinking  about  the  world,  as  framed  on  a  plan  into 
which  Christianity  enters  as  the  proper  complement.  It 
recognised  the  attainments  of  the  Gentile  mind,  without 
sacrificing  the  necessity  and  supremacy  of  Christianity.  It 
emphasised  the  benignity  of  the  Logos  in  pre-Christian  as 
well  as  in  Christian  dispensations,  and  asserted  the  interest 
and  the  claims  of  Christ  in  connection  with  every  aspect  and 
every  stage  of  human  progress.  While  it  sympathised  with 
the  emphasis  with  which  most  ancient  thinkers  exalted 
the  spiritual  as  contrasted  with  the  material,  it  still  was 
able  to  claim  importance  for  the  material  world  as  the 
intended  and  the  fitting  scene  for  discipline  and  trial ;  and 
so  it  could  retain  the  Hebrew  and  the  Christian  doctrine 
of  God  the  Creator,  and  of  the  intrinsic  goodness  of  the 
creatures.  It  took  possession  of  all  the  hereditary  enthusiasm 
of  the  schools  for  truth  and  knowledge,  because  it  conceived 
Christianity  as  the  complete  Truth,  which  did  its  work  as 
a  light,  victoriously  correcting  and  persuading.  At  the 
same  time  it  shut  out  the  fatalistic  tendencies  of  Gnosticism 
and  Pantheism  by  the  energetic  assertion  of  creature  in- 
dependence as  involved  in  the  freedom  of  the  will ;  while 
yet  the  element  of  irregularity  and  disorder,  that  seemed 
necessarily  to  break  in  at  this  point,  was  held  in  check  by 
the  conception  of  a  divine  righteousness,  strong,  watchful, 
and  benevolent,  which  perpetually  relates  itself  to  every 
movement  of  every  will,  and  administers  incessantly  the 
discipline  which  the  action  of  each  calls  for.  So  the 
history  of  the  world  and  the  processes  of  Christian  salva- 
tion evolve  themselves  on  lines  which  are  simple,  attractive, 
intelligible,  which  may  charm  away  speculative  doubt,  and 
secure  room  for  the  moral  and  spuitual  teaching  to  do  its 


180-313]  SCHOOL   OF   ALEXANDRIA  167 

work  unimpeded.  This  doctrine,  propounding  a  philosophy 
and  a  theology  hand  in  hand,  appealed  strongly  to  the  age. 
And  it  was  really  much  more  than  merely  a  doctrine  of 
the  second  or  third  century.  A  way  of  thinking  in  sub- 
stance the  same  has  revived  again  and  again  down  to  our 
own  time ;  it  has  been  represented  by  very  beautiful  and 
attractive  minds.  It  embodies  one  of  the  ways  of  con- 
ceiving Christianity, — one  of  the  great  alternatives  for 
thinkers  who  strive  to  combine  Christian  convictions  with 
a  free  outlook  into  the  experience  and  the  thinking  of 
men. 

The  defects  of  it  have  at  all  times  been  obvious.  Claim- 
ing to  exhibit  the  relation  between  God  and  men,  it  has  no 
feasible  account  to  give  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  condition 
in  which  the  race  finds  itself.  Its  exponents  have  often  been 
distinguished  by  moral  enthusiasm  and  sincerity ;  but  their 
theory* in  its  own  nature  tends  to  attenuate  sin,  and  reduce 
it  to  mere  error.  The  need  and  the  fact  of  the  Atonement 
and  the  Christian  doctrine  of  grace  are  foreign  to  the 
scheme,  and  therefore  must  be  somewhat  slightly  dealt  with  ; 
and  redemption  turns  wholly  on  the  soul  being  flooded  with 
light,  combined  with  the  lessons  of  experience.  Yet  while 
these  defects  must  be  pointed  out,  it  is  right  to  acknowledge 
that  what  is  not  adequately  presented  by  thinkers  of  this 
class  is  not  necessarily  or  always  denied.  Christianity  is 
full  of  compensations  for  human  defects  in  the  appropria- 
tion of  it.  Those  who  think  mainly  on  Alexandrian  lines 
have  often  approximated  in  various  ways  to  the  positions 
which  they  felt  unable  to  assert. 

The  scheme  recalls  features  of  Gnosticism  in  the  stress 
which  it  lays  on  enlightenment,  and  in  its  conception  of  the 
function  of  the  Logos  as  the  great  appeal  of  mind  to  mind. 
Clement  loves  to  think  of  the  ripe  Christian  as  the  true 
Gnostic;  and  he  did  share  in  some  respects  the  point  of 
view  of  the  earlier  Gnostics,  and  their  intellectual  tendencies. 
But  the  contrast  between  him  and  them  is  marked.  He 
had  no  sympathy  with  the  fantastic  romance  of  Gnostic 
speculation  ;  he  abhorred  its  fatalism,  its  way  of  conceiving 


168       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

the  relations  of  God  and  creatures,  its  conception  of  fiinda- 
mentally  diverse  classes  of  human  beings.  He  threw  himself 
on  the  Christian  doctrine  of  creation,  and  of  the  respon- 
eibilities  of  the  creature,  and  (in  his  own  way  doubtless) 
he  carried  these  through.  One  effect  of  the  intellectualism 
may  be  noted.  On  his  scheme  a  consistent  divine  benev- 
olence is  asserted,  which  is  also  one  with  justice.  This 
benevolence  aims  at  highest  well-being,  and  therefore  may 
be  said  to  be  equivalent  to  love.  Yet  the  thought  is  not 
so  much  of  love,  but  rather  of  light,  with  its  essentially 
beneficent  influences. 

The  chief  features  ascribed  to  Clement  apply  also  to  the 
teaching  of  Origen.  But  Origen  was  far  more  conscious  of 
the  obligation  to  think  out  his  theories.  He  left  a  remark- 
able illustration  both  of  Alexandrian  tendencies  and  also 
of  Christianity  itself,  as  including  peculiarities  which  he 
recognises,  and  for  which  he  endeavours  to  provide. 

OEIGEN 

Origen  was  born  at  Alexandria  about  A.D.  185.  His 
father,  Leonidas,  was  a  Christian  of  some  position  and 
means.  Origen  received  a  liberal  education,  and  was 
trained  also  in  the  Scriptures,  learning  many  portions  by 
heart.  His  strange,  deep  questions  led  the  father  to  augur 
a  remarkable  career  for  his  child.  In  a.d.  202  the  per- 
secution of  Alexander  Severus  broke  out,  and  Leonidas  was 
apprehended.  Origen  burned  to  share  his  fate ;  and  when 
prevented  by  his  mother  and  other  friends  from  giving 
himself  up,  he  sent  a  message  to  his  father  imploring  him 
to  be  staunch  to  the  end.  Leonidas  was  put  to  death,  and 
Origen  found  himself  at  seventeen  years  of  age  without 
means.  He  resolved  to  make  his  way  by  teaching.  Soon 
the  mental  energy  and  the  unflinching  Christian  devotedness 
of  the  youth  led  the  bishop  to  intrust  to  him  the  care  of 
the  catechetical  School ;  for  Clement  had  found  it  expedient 
to  leave  Alexandria  when  the  persecution  began.  Origen's 
courage  and    devotedness,  joined   to   his   remarkable  gifts, 


180-313]  ORIGEN  169 

ensured  for  him  the  affection  and  admiration  of  his  scholars. 
Some  time  during  this  period  of  his  life,  desiring  to  make 
any  sacrifice  that  might  conduce  to  the  purity  and  success 
of  his  work,  he  was  led  to  the  rash  act  of  self-mutilation, 
which  he  afterwards  condemned.^  Till  past  middle  life 
Origen  continued  at  Alexandria.  But  during  occasional 
visits  which  he  paid  to  Palestine  he  preached  in  the  church 
at  Caesarea,  in  presence  of  the  bishop  and,  later,  received 
ordination  as  a  presbyter.  These  steps,  taken  without  the 
leave  of  the  Alexandrian  bishop,  were  fitted  to  give  umbrage  ; 
most  likely  also  parts  of  his  teaching  were  disapproved. 
Proceedings  were  taken,  and  he  left  Alexandria,  in  so  far 
as  the  Alexandrian  church  was  concerned,  a  deposed  and 
excommunicated  man.  But  the  churches  in  Palestine  and 
in  some  other  regions  refused  to  recognise  the  sentence, 
and  Origen  found  refuge  at  Caesarea  (in  Palestine),  where 
the  bishop,  Alexander,  was  an  old  friend.  His  life  was 
diversified  by  various  journeys, — in  one  of  them  he  came  to 
Eome ;  but  Caesarea  continued  to  be  his  headquarters,  until 
in  A.D.  251,  escaping  to  Tyre  to  avoid  the  Decian  persecu- 
tion, he  was  taken  prisoner.  He  survived  the  persecution ; 
but,  broken -by  suffering,  he  died  in  a.d.   254. 

His  labours  as  a  scholar  and  writer  were  enormous ; 
hence  probably  the  name  Adamantius  often  given  to  him. 
The  greater  part  of  his  work  was  expended  directly  on  the 
Scriptures.  Of  the  rest  the  most  important  are  his  sketch 
of  a  system  in  four  books  (ire pi  dp'^^cov,  De  Principiis)^  and 
his  reply  to  Celsus,^  who  had  written  against  Christianity 
in  the  previous  century.  The  Hexapla  was  a  gigantic  effort 
to  establish  a  good  text  of  the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Old 
Testament,  accompanied  by  the  Hebrew,  and  by  other  Greek 
versions  besides  the  LXX.^  These  materials  were  exhibited, 
at  least  in  a  large  part  of  the  work,  in  six  columns.     Nothing 

*  His  later  judgment  on  it  will  be  found  in  Comm.  on  Matth.  xix.  12 ; 
Lomm.  iii.  327,  331. 

*  Patrick,  The  Apology  of  Origen  in  Rjyly  to  Celstts,  Edin.  and  London, 
1892. 

*  Hexapl.  quce  Supersuntj  F.  Field,  Oxon.  1867-74,  2  vols.  4to. 


170       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d, 

SO  elaborate  was  attempted  with  respect  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment; but  it  appears  that  a  corrected  copy,  which  Origen 
used,  became  a  source  of  subsequent  copies.  For  the  rest, 
he  commented  on  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  in 
three  different  forms  (Scholia,  Homilies,  and  Commentaries, 
TOfioi),  and  these  expositions  form  the  bulk  of  his  surviving 
work ;  but  much  has  perished. 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  in  more  than  one  case 
Origen  was  sent  or  was  invited  to  churches  where  alleged 
heresies  had  been  broached,  and  composed  the  differences  by 
leading  the  innovators  to  withdraw  what  had  given  offence.^ 

As  an  interpreter  Origen  is  famous  for  having  theorised 
the  principle  of  allegorical  interpretation,  already  generally 
applied  to  the  Old  Testament.  That,  as  Origen  himself 
points  out,  was  one  of  the  commonplaces  of  orthodoxy  in 
his  day,  only  it  required  to  be  systematised.  But  the 
method,  as  he  maintained,  was  applicable  also  to  the  New 
Testament,  i.e.  to  all  inspired  Scripture.  There  are  three 
senses — the  literal,  the  moral,  the  spiritual,  which  he  com- 
pares to  body,  soul,  and  spirit;  but  not  all  passages  have 
all  the  three  senses.  Origen's  own  interpretations  are  no 
doubt  often  fantastic;  yet  he  has  the  merit  of  inculcating 
strict  grammatical  exegesis  as  the  foundation  of  all  else; 
and  he  did  a  great  deal  of  useful  scholarly  commentating 
by  which  all  his  successors  have  benefited.^  Sometimes  his 
literal  interpretation  is  too  literal ;  it  overlooks  the  essential 
figurativeness  which  gives  life  to  all  language.  It  is  usually 
said  that  Clement  and  Origen  hold  a  more  liberal  theory  of 
inspiration  than  other  early  writers  do ;  but  it  would  be 
difficult  to  prove  it.  It  is  true  that  the  allegorical  method 
gives  a  comfortable  latitude  in  dealing  with  difficult  passages ; 
but  Origen  himself  enforces  the  importance  of  every  syllable 
in  the  text  from  which  your  allegory  starts.  It  is  true  also 
that  Origen  asserts  that,  e,g.,  in  historical  books,  you  may 
meet  with  statements   impossible  in  the  letter,  which  are 

*  Oases  of  Beron  and  Beryllus  of  Bostra, — obscure  speculations  on  the  God- 
head.    Domer,  Lehre  v.  d.  Person  Christie  i.  536-61, 
2  Lightfoot,  Oomm.  on  OaZatianSf  p.  227, 


180-313]  ORIGEN  171 

meant  to  force  you  to  look  out  for  a  deeper  sense.  But 
that,  in  his  view,  is  the  triumph  of  inspiration,  not  the 
defect  of  it. 

It  remains  to  say  something  of  Origen's  scheme  of 
theological  thought.  It  might  be  more  lightly  passed  over 
if  its  importance  were  estimated  by  the  number  of  its 
adherents ;  for  few  probably,  even  in  his  own  day,  adopted 
it  throughout.  But  its  interest  lies  in  the  revelation  of  the 
way  in  which  the  most  remarkable  Christian  of  the  third 
century  could  think.  Moreover,  it  is  the  first  Christian 
system,  the  first  scheme  of  ordered  Christian  thought  which 
aims  at  method  and  completeness.  In  sketching  it,  it  will 
be  most  convenient  to  begin  at  the  beginning — with  God 
and  creation;  only  the  reader  will  do  well  to  remember 
that,  in  such  schemes,  what  were  really  the  decisive  and 
organising  thoughts  for  the  system-maker  are  found  in  the 
middle  of  the  system,  rather  than  at  the  beginning. 

Origen  opens  with  an  enumeration  of  the  points  which 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  settled  and  agreed  upon  among 
Christians.  It  is  a  statement  of  the  regula,  as  he  con- 
ceived it,  and  it  coincides  in  substance  with  statements  of 
the  same  kind  by  other  writers  (see  a7ite,  p.  159);  only 
Origen  goes  into  more  detail,  and  betrays  more  distinctly 
the  common  tendency  to  claim  the  benefit  of  the  regula 
for  inferences  whose  value  was  becoming  apparent,  as  well 
as  for  positions  which  had  been  longer  recognised.  Beyond 
this  common  gi'ound  he  recognises  a  region  open  to  reverent 
discussion,  on  the  grounds  of  Scripture  and  of  reason.  Here 
he  finds  topics  and  questions  of  which  the  Church  has  nothing 
final  to  say ;  but  to  search  for  treasures  in  this  field  is  the 
duty  and  the  privilege  of  Christians  who  are  competent  for 
doing  so.  Origen,  looking  out  from  the  central  certainties 
into  these  regions  beyond,  forms  his  own  conception  of  the 
Unity  of  Truth,  and  the  eternal  order  of  the  ways  of  God. 

God  is  pure  spirit  or  intelligence,  immaterial,  exalted 
far  above  all  creatures.  His  attributes  are,  properly  speak- 
ing, unnameable.  Yet  Origen  was  to  maintain  that  He  is 
essentially  self -revealing.     Accordingly,  he  ascribes  to  Him 


172     The  ancient  catholic  church     [a.d. 

proper  personality  and  immutable  truth  and  goodness..  He 
is  absolutely  without  beginning  and  without  end.  Otherwise 
He  is  not  absolutely  without  measure.  If  He  were,  He 
could  not  comprehend  Himself.  On  this  Origen  speaks 
with  some  emphasis. 

Here  comes  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos.  At  this  time 
men's  thoughts  vacillated  between  the  ascription  to  the 
Logos  of  full  divinity,  but  so  as,  at  the  same  time,  to  merge 
Him  indistinguishably  in  the  Father,  and  the  ascription  to 
Him  of  distinct  or  distinguishable  being,  but  in  expressions 
which  seem  to  imply  a  later  and  lower  nature.  Origen 
leant  to  the  latter  alternative,  because  he  was  anxious  to 
assert  strongly  the  distinct  personality.  The  Logos  was 
an  eternal  existence  like  the  Father,  eternally  begotten. 
Origen,  like  others,  conceives  the  Logos  as  one  in  whom 
the  divine  nature  becomes  the  divine  manifestation, — seed 
and  ground  of  all  creatures.  But  He  is  distinguished  from 
Philo's  Logos,  and  from  Plato's  world  of  ideas,  by  this,  that 
He  is  unambiguously  personal — ^possessing  life,  thought,  and 
power.  The  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  dictated 
this  difference. 

Through  the  Logos,  who  is  thus  the  eternal  radiation  or 
reflection  of  the  Father,  the  Holy  Ghost  takes  being,  receives 
wisdom,  and  becomes  the  channel  of  both  to  the  creatures. 
Origen  has  spoken  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Father  as  includ- 
ing all  things,  of  that  of  the  Son  as  including  the  rational 
and  the  hallowed,  and  of  the  Spirit  as  including  the  hallowed. 
This  disparity,  however,  is  ultimately  adjusted ;  for,  as  we 
shall  see,  on  the  scheme  of  Origen  all  that  is  irrational 
vanishes  at  last,  and  all  that  is  rational  becomes  ultimately 
holy. 

This  scheme  turned  really  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Second 
Person ;  and  two  interests  were  to  be  provided  for.  First, 
the  conception  of  the  universe  as  related  to  God,  having  its 
reason  and  ground  in  Him;  second,  the  conception  of  the 
Saviour  as  realised  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  latter  determined 
the  conception  of  the  full  personality  of  the  Logos.  Look- 
ing at  Christ,  Origen  felt  that  though  He  is  in  the  Father, 


180-313]  ORIGEN  173 

and  with  the  Father,  and  from  the  Father,  and  though  He 
lives  by  the  Father,  yet  He  is  not  the  Father.  The  distinct 
personality  is  therefore  emphasised,  and  that  in  a  form  of 
subordinationism.  But  another  interest,  the  first  noted 
above,  acted  on  the  other  side.  If  the  Christian  view  of 
creation  was  to  be  maintained,  the  universe  must  be  traced 
up  to  God,  as  an  expression  and  revelation  of  Him.  There- 
fore the  Logos,  who  is  specially  the  Creator,  must  be  con- 
ceived so  as  to  sustain  that  view.  In  the  Logos  there  must 
be  no  arbitrary  wilfulness  of  a  creature,  polluting  and  con- 
fusing the  work.  The  Logos  must  be  a  pure  echo,  if  we 
may  phrase  it  so,  of  the  Father.  Origen  meant  to  give 
effect  to  this  thought. 

The  picturesque  peculiarities  of  Origen's  thinking  become 
more  apparent  when  we  go  on  to  the  doctrine  of  Creation. 

Existing  tendencies  have  to  be  remembered  at  this  point. 
It  was  common  to  assume  that  mind  alone  has  any  value, 
and  to  set  down  what  is  material  in  the  universe  as  the 
element  of  disadvantage  or  deformity.  Evil  of  all  kinds 
was  accounted  for  as  arising  from  material  conditions.  The 
scheme  was  then  completed  by  assuming  that  all  minds  are 
portions  of  God,  or  emanations  from  God  (so  the  Gnostics, 
— the  Neo-Platonic  doctrine  tries  to  refine  on  this);  and 
that  matter  is  the  lowering  and  darkening  element  which 
seduces  us  from  our  proper  good,  as  it  hides  from  us  our  true 
nature.  It  was  congruous  to  this  mode  of  view  to  think 
that  the  emancipation  of  men  and  their  final  well-being  de- 
pended mainly  on  an  intellectual  triumph  over  the  delusions 
of  sense.  Origen  shared  the  common  tendency  so  far,  that 
he,  too,  could  not  think  any  form  of  being  worthy  to  be 
called  into  existence  by  God,  save  mind — intelligence.  But, 
as  a  Christian,  he  could  not  regard  matter  as  not  God's 
creature,  nor  as  necessarily  evil ;  nor  could  he  regard  created 
spirits  as  parts  or  modes  of  God's  own  being.  Also,  he  had 
learned  as  a  Christian  to  give  a  more  decisive  place,  both 
for  good  and  evil,  to  the  decisions  of  the  will,  than  to  the 
exercises  or  the  accomplishments  of  the  understanding.  It 
may  be  added  further,  that  the  Gnostics;  as  we  saw,  traced 


174       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIO  CHURCH        [a.i>. 

up  not  merely  the  present  state  of  the  mixed  world,  but  its 
origin,  to  a  primeval  fall  from  the  Pleroma.  Origen,  too, 
was  not  disposed  to  think  of  the  material  world  as  other 
than  the  result  of  a  fall;  and  yet,  as  just  stated,  he  was 
not  to  condemn  it  as  evil.  How  was  he  to  wind  his  way 
through  these  various  conditions  ? 

God,  as  Origen  considered,  did  not  begin  to  create,  as  at  an 
era  before  which  creation  was  not.  He  has  never  been  without 
a  world  of  creatures.  And  His  work  has  consisted  in  causing 
to  exist  a  great,  but  not  an  infinite  number  of  intelligences. 
From  the  inconceivable  "  beginning "  these  spirits  have 
existed.  They  must  be  conceived  as  equal  to  one  another 
in  position  and  gifts  so  far  as  God  is  concerned, — anything 
else  were  inconsistent  with  divine  equity.  They  are,  then, 
at  first  blessed,  all  of  them  equally,  with  a  full  view  of  truth 
and  full  delight  in  goodness,  for  they  are  all  in  unimpeded 
fellowship  with  the  Logos.  Though  they  are  akin  to  God, 
they  differ  from  the  Holy  Spirit  (and,  of  course,  from  the 
Logos  and  the  Father)  in  this,  that  He  has  goodness  essen- 
tially by  nature,  but  they  are  capable  of  partaking  of  it,  and 
also  of  losing  it,  by  will.  Being  in  possession  of  goodness 
they  may  become  saturated  with  it,  may  relax  in  their  in  ten  t- 
ness,  and  become  subject  to  some  degree  of  evil.  They  can 
cool  from  the  glow  of  primeval  goodness. 

This,  in  fact,  is  what  Origen  conceives  all  of  these  crea- 
tures to  have  done,  more  or  less,  through  the  play  of  their 
own  freedom  (all,  unless  there  be  one  exception);  a  de- 
scending process  thus  sets  in  which  proceeds  in  various 
cases  to  various  lengths.  The  devil  is  he  who  has  gone 
farthest,  and  Origen  conceives  that  it  was  he  who  began  the 
process  of  defection. 

Here  now  comes  in  the  actual  experimental  world.  A 
spirit,  TTvevfia,  sufficiently  refrigerated  ^  in  the  progress  of 
its  decline  from  the  glow  of  primeval  goodness,  becomes 
a  human  soul,  yjrv^Tjj  and  acquires  a  material  vesture 
adapted  to  its  precise  conditions ;  also,  the  material  universe 
takes  shape  by  divine  appointment    precisely  in  the  form 

^  Origen  connected  ^vxv  with  \j/\jxp6^. 


180-313]  ORIGEN  175 

adapted  to  be  the  scene  in  which  spirits  so  situated  shall 
pursue  the  course  of  further  experiences.  As  compared  with 
the  prior  and  happier  conditions  of  spirits,  the  world  we 
know  is  thus  a  kind  of  prison  and  place  of  correction,  while 
in  relation  to  abodes  of  yet  lower  quality  it  may  be  a  place 
of  relief.  This  is  the  explanation  of  how  men  are  born ;  an 
intelligence,  so  far  fallen,  has  become  incorporate  in  each 
little  child.  Other  spirits  which  have  not  fallen  so  far, 
have  their  own  conditions,  more  ethereal  than  ours,  but 
material  still.  The  sun,  moon,  and  stars  are  all,  for  Origen, 
instances  of  spirits  less  fallen  than  we,  yet  in  a  disciplmary 
captivity  in  those  lucent  forms  of  theirs,  from  which  they 
shall  one  day  be  delivered.^ 

The  spirit  of  each  man  at  death  is  supposed  to  ascend  or 
descend,  as  his  previous  course  deserves.  There  is  not, 
however,  for  the  present,  at  the  death  of  each  man,  an  exact 
adjustment  of  externals  to  his  internal  state ;  only  an  ap- 
proximation. But  when  the  ^on,  or  world  age,  ends,  then 
a  full  rearrangement  takes  place.  The  Logos  becomes 
intensely  present  to  each  soul ;  each  fully  realises  his  own 
character  and  his  past  doings ;  and  then  a  full  readjustment 
takes  place,  a  new  world  arises,  and  a  new  start  is  made. 

A  succession  of  such  world  ages  is  to  be  supposed,  how 
many  and  how  long  enduring  none  can  say.  The  whole 
process  is  meant  to  reclaim  the  fallen;  and  at  last,  after 
many  successive  aeons,  the  great  result  will  be  attained, — 
the  whole  universe  of  intelligences  will  return  to  their 
primeval  good  state.  This  is  the  greater  world  close,  which 
concludes,  not  an  seen  merely,  but  the  "  ages  of  ages." 
That  such  a  close  is  relatively  near,  Origen  inferred  from 
Christ's  incarnation,  for  that  must  be  supposed  to  indicate 
that  all  was  to  be  made  new.  Yet,  end  when  it  may,  this 
immense  process  cannot,  apparently,  be  supposed  to  occur 
only  once  for  all.  Change  will  set  in  again  through  free 
will,  and  the  problem  will  rise  and  be  resolved  again, — in 

*  There  are  passages,  however,  in  which  the  alternative  is  suggested,  that 
all  spiritual  beings  (except  the  Tiinity)  possess  an  extremely  refined  material 
vesture. 


176       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

general  Cfn  the  same  principles,  but  with  interminable  variety 
in  detail.  This  last  point  lies  in  the  connection  of  the 
system,  and  it  is  indicated  by  Origen  as  at  least  possible ; 
but  he  does  not  dwell  upon  it. 

The  Logos,  meanwhile,  has  been  ever  soliciting  the 
minds  of  His  creatures  with  truth.  Philosophy,  Law,  Pro- 
mise are  all  effects  of  His  activity.  But  these  prove  to  be 
not  enough ;  and  so,  in  one  seon,  after  much  evil,  the  Logos 
Himself  comes, — who  does  not  come  in  many  aeons, — He 
comes  incarnate.  Our  Lord's  appearance  is  the  most  strik- 
ing instance  of  one  principle  enunciated  by  Origen,  namely, 
that  while  in  general  all  intelligences  are  placed  in  stations 
corresponding  to  their  merits,  yet  sometimes  the  good  and 
pure  are  found  in  stations  far  below  what  would  otherwise 
be  their  lot.  This  takes  place  by  way  of  condescension  and 
sympathy.  These  benefactors  descend  to  minister  to  the 
good  of  others. 

Origen  attached  great  weight  to  the  presence  of  the 
human  soul  of  Christ  in  the  incarnation.  Probably  many 
Christians  were  confused  or  unsettled  on  this  point.  In  his 
view  it  was  unsuitable  for  the  Logos  to  unite  Himself 
directly  with  a  material  body ;  He  is  in  union  with  a  human 
soul,  and  with  the  body  through  that.  But  this  human 
soul,  this  '^frvxv,  had  to  be  explained,  as  far  as  possible,  in 
conformity  with  Origen's  general  doctrine  of  souls.  He 
taught,  therefore,  that  this  spirit,  like  all  others,  has  pre- 
existed through  indefinite  ages.  This  one,  however,  unlike 
all  others,  has  constantly  adhered  to  the  Logos  in  unfailing 
and  inextinguishable  love,  has  grown  continually  into  near- 
ness and  ardour  of  attachment,  has  become,  as  it  were,  one 
spirit  with  Him.  So  it  could  appropriately  have  the  distinc- 
tion, and  could  accept  the  trials  of  the  human  soul  of  Christ.^ 
Thus  the  principle  of  remunerative  righteousness  is  carried 

^  It  Las  often  been  remarked  that  this  explanation  leaves  out  of  account 
one  element  in  Origen's  theory  of  souls  in  general ;  for,  according  to  that,  a 
irvevfia  becomes  a  fvxv,  and  acquires  a  material  vesture  only  through  a  pro- 
cess of  moral  refrigeration.  But  Origen's  resources  are  not  easily  exhausted, 
and  perhaps  he  had  a  reply  ready  for  this  diflaculty. 


180-313]  ORIGEN  177 

out  even  here.  The  human  soul  of  Christ  has  earned  the 
place  it  occupies.  And  while  the  actual  incarnation  takes 
place  only  once  in  the  consummation  of  the  ages,  the  union 
of  the  Logos  with  the  spirit,  who  is  the  human  soul  of  Christ, 
became  a  durable  fact  quite  apart  from  the  incarnation,  and 
apparently  in  no  connection  of  time  with  that  event.  Ap- 
parently, also,  in  the  final  state  of  things,  the  material  part  of 
Christ  will  vanish,  but  the  union  with  this  spirit  will  remain. 

As  to  the  redeeming  energy  of  Christ,  the  main  thought 
is  that  He  operates  as  an  enlightening  influence.  Yet 
Origen  felt  a  meaning  in  the  death  of  Christ  which  this 
thought  did  not  adequately  bring  out.  Three  w^ays  of  look- 
ing at  this  matter  have  been  pointed  out  in  various  parts 
of  his  writings.  First,  he  gives  some  weight  to  the  idea, 
current  in  his  day  and  long  after,  that  in  subjecting  Himself 
to  the  malice  of  Satan,  our  Lord  ousted  that  enemy  from 
the  dominion  which  he  had  over  us  as  sinners, — a  dominion 
usurped  as  it  relates  to  God,  but  having  a  certain  right  to 
be,  in  so  far  as  our  sin  brought  us  under  that  dark  yoke. 
Secondly,  in  a  sense  Christ's  death  was  substitutionary,  and 
as  such  relieves  us  from  punishment.  Punishment,  accord- 
ing to  Origen,  is  not  vindicative,  it  is  always  and  only  disci- 
plinary ;  but  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  another  may,  even  in 
this  view,  so  far  fulfil  the  ends  of  punishment  as  to  replace 
it.  Lastly,  Origen  seems  to  have  thought  that  the  death  of 
the  holy  sufferer  has  a  mystical  or  magical  power  to  defeat 
the  onset  of  evil.     It  breaks  the  spell,  and  sets  man  free. 

The  pathway  by  which  the  individual  soul  reaches  the 
great  result  through  repentance,  faith,  baptism,  and  perse- 
verance, is  conceived  by  Origen  as  an  ascent  to  God,  in  a 
manner  that  recalls  the  teaching  of  the  New  Platonists, 
and  also  of  the  later  mystics. 

At  death  the  soul,  separated  from  the  body,  but  still 
retaining  a  finer  material  vesture,  has  special  experiences  to 
go  through.  Even  the  good,  who  proceed,  in  the  first  place, 
to  paradise  (somewhere  in  the  earth),  pass  to  it  through  a 
lively  apprehension  of  their  own  sin,  and  an  inward  judg- 
ment of  it,  which  is  their  punishment.     The  same  experi- 

12 


178       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

ence  awaits  others  also ;  but  these  cannot  pass  through,  and 
they  sink  to  those  regions  that  are  suited  to  their  state. 
From  paradise  the  good  ascend,  not  usually  to  consummate 
blessedness,  but  to  some  higher  region  adapted  to  a  character 
which  is  not  yet  perfected.  All  this  was  a  contribution  to 
the  doctrine  of  purgatory.  The  punishment  of  the  wicked 
is  perhaps  chiefly  to  be  conceived  as  an  intense  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Logos,  which  confronts  the  soul  with  its  sins, 
and  forces  in  upon  it  the  sense  of  their  intolerable  eviL 
Each  man  really  lights  his  own  fire,  rather  than  sinks  into  fire 
prepared  for  him.  "  Walk  in  the  light  of  your  fire,  and  in 
the  flames  which  ye  have  kindled."  And  the  fuel  is  our  sin, 
which  Paul  (1  Cor.  iii.  12)  calls  wood,  hay,  stubble.  "So 
the  soul,  when  it  has  collected  into  itself  a  multitude  of  evil 
works  and  an  abundance  of  sins,  at  a  fitting  time  glows  into 
punishment,  and  bursts  into  penal  fire.**  Very  striking 
representations  are  made  of  the  way  in  which  past  sins  may 
take  hold  of  the  sinner.  The  process,  with  its  unknown 
progressions — for  who  can  tell  what  purging  pain  the  great 
Healer  will  apply  ? — ^is  always  in  the  long-run  designed  to 
heal  and  to  restore.  God  is  at  last  to  bring  all  to  the  result 
described  as  subjection  to  Christ  (1  Cor.  xv.  28).  "What  is 
that  subjection  ?  I  believe  it  is  that  subjection  which  we 
long  for,  that  which  apostles  and  saints  experience.  It  is 
such  subjection  as  includes  the  safety  of  those  subjected. 
For  David  says,  *  Shall  not  my  soul  be  subject  to  the  Lord ; 
from  Him  comes  my  salvation.**'^ 

Origen's  theology  is  a  theme  on  which  much  might  be 
written,  if  this  were  the  place.  Let  it  suffice  to  say,  mean- 
while, that  in  a  great  degree  he  saw  and  settled  what  the 
questions  are  which  dogmatic  theology  raises,  and  in  a  great 
degree  also,  the  relation  in  which  they  stand  to  one  another. 
He  also  raised  into  prominence  the  question  of  the  boundary 

^  Origen,  at  the  same  time,  had  given  the  consentient  teaching  of  the 
Church  in  these  words  :  "The  soul  departing  out  of  this  world  will  be  dealt 
with  according  to  its  merits,  either  partaking  the  inheritance  of  eternal  life 
and  blessedness,  if  its  own  works  allot  this  to  it,  or  committed  to  eternal  fire 
and  punishment,  if  the  guilt  of  its  evil  deeds  binds  it  over  to  this"  {D« 
Frinc,  Prsef.  5). 


180-513]  ORIGEN  179 

between  that  which  is  of  faith  and  that  which  should  be 
open  among  Christians.  Where  should  that  line  be  drawn  ? 
And  ought  it  at  all  times  to  be  the  same  ?  It  is  a  question 
that  has  been  variously  dealt  with  since,  and  it  is  not  yet 
closed.  Origen's  answer  to  it  is  in  the  earlier  chapters  of 
the  De  Frincipiis} 

In  passing  from  this  system,  we  may  remind  ourselves 
that  a  man  does  not  always  live  by  the  speculations  which 
he  thinks.  Apparently  the  older  Origen  grew  the  more 
he  lived  in  the  Scriptures,  and  tlje  less  he  cared  for  any- 
thing outside  of  them.  It  is  not  wonderful,  however,  that 
umbrage  was  early  taken  at  the  freedom  of  Origen's  specu- 
lation. At  first,  this  applied  mainly  to  his  speculations 
about  the  origin  and  history  of  souls,  including  his  theory 
of  matter.*  As  regards  his  way  of  speaking  on  the  higher 
nature  in  Christ,  the  charge  of  heresy  on  that  ground  was  a 
later  development. 

For  some  time  all  Eastern  theology  was  influenced  by  Origen,  but 
in  various  degrees.  Dionysius,  after  presiding  in  the  catechetical  school, 
became  bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  was  distinguished  as  "  the  Great." 
He  opposed  Chiliasm,  and  criticised  unfavourably  the  claims  to 
canonicity  of  the  Book  of  Eevelation.  His  utterances  on  Logos  doctrine 
are  referred  to  below  (Fragments  in  Routh).  Gregory  Thaumaturgus, 
a  scholar  of  Origen  at  Csesarea,  afterwards  a  very  successful  bishop  of 
Neo-Caesarea  in  Pontus,  wrote  a  Panegyricus  on  Origen  (among  Origen's 
works,  Lommatzsch,  vol.  xxv.).  Methodius,  bishop  of  Olympus  in 
Lycia  (died  a  martyr,  311),  attacked  Origen's  Anthropology,  and  his 
doctrine  of  Eternal  Creation  {Opera,  Jahn,  Heid.  1865,  transl.  in  Clark's 
Ante-Nicene  Fathers).  His  conception  of  salvation  as  emancipation 
from  sense  makes  him  a  glowing  advocate  of  celibacy.  Against  various 
attacks  Pamphilus  (died  309  by  martyrdom),  aided  by  Eusebius,  wrote 
an  Apology  for  Origen,  of  which  the  first  book  remains  (in  Eouth,  and 
among  Origen's  works,  Lomm.  vol.  xxiv.).  Separately  must  be  named  a 
learned  layman,  Julius  Africanus,  older  than  Origen,  and  one  of  his 
correspondents.  He  wrote  five  books  of  Chronography,  long  influential, 
and  a  medical  book,  Kf oroy ;  fragments  in  Routh,  ii.  219,  609. 

*  For  the  rest,  the  reader  may  consult  the  remarks  of  Harnack,  Histary  of 
Doctrine^  noting  especially  what  he  says  as  to  the  art  with  which,  in  Origen's 
scheme,  each  element  slides  into  the  next,  and  sharp  contrasts  are  avoided. 
See  also  Thoraasius  and  Redepenning,  ante^  p.  161. 

^  Methodius,  in  his  works  on  the  Resurrection  and  on  Things  Created, 


180       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 


2.  School  of  Asia  Minor 

There  existed  in  Asia  Minor  during  the  second  century 
a  vigorous  church  life,  and  a  lively  tradition  of  Christian 
teaching.^  There  Irenaeus  was  impressed  in  his  youth  by 
the  character  and  reminiscences  of  "  Presbyteri  Apostolorum 
discipuli."  Characteristic  thoughts  of  Ignatius,  of  Polycarp, 
and  of  Melito  receive  emphasis  and  illustration  in  Irenseus. 
This  is  less  conspicuously  true  of  Hippolytus ;  yet  he  is 
commonly  referred  to  the  same  school.  Irenseus  and  Hip- 
polytus both  found  their  field  of  work  in  the  West;  but 
they  continued  to  think  and  write  in  Greek — and  their 
peculiarities  are  Asian  rather  than  Western.^ 

Irenseus  is  important,  because  he  represents  the  central 
forces  of  the  Christianity  of  his  time.  Alike  his  training 
and  his  character  disposed  him  to  avoid  eccentricities,  and 

^  Melito  of  Sardis,  ApoUinarius  of  Hierapolis,  Miltiades,  Apollonius.  The 
rise  of  Montanism,  and  the  conflict  with  it,  imply  vivacity  and  susceptibility. 

^  Irenseus,  born  in  the  East — perhaps  a.d.  130  (Zahn  says,  115),  not  later 
than  140,  in  his  early  days  saw  and  heard  Polycarp  at  Smyrna,  said  to  have 
spent  some  time  at  Rome  after  155,  became  bishop  of  Lyons  on  death  of 
Pothinus,  177 — and  is  known  to  have  been  alive  in  190.  That  he  was  mar- 
tyred under  Septimius  Severus  (202)  has  been  asserted,  but  on  no  sure  grounds. 
Besides  his  work  against  Heresies  (chiefly  the  Gnostic),  which  has  survived  in 
a  very  old  Latin  translation  (considerable  fragments  also  iu  Greek),  Irenaeus 
also  wrote  letters  and  tracts  on  current  questions,  which  were  quoted  by  later 
writers.  (Edd.  Stieren.  2  v.  Lips.  1853  ;  Harvey,  Cambridge,  1857,  contains 
additional  fragments  from  the  Syriac. ) 

Hippolytus  was  by  far  the  most  learned  man  in  the  Roman  Church  of  his 
day,  yet  his  position  there  has  been  matter  of  great  debate.  He  was  influen- 
tial from  about  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  but  disapproved  of  the 
action  of  Pope  Zephyrinus,  came  into  serious  collision  with  Callistus  (217-222), 
and  is  believed  by  Dollinger  and  others  to  have  been  an  opposition  bishop  of 
a  sect  in  Rome  (but  see  Prof.  Salmon  in  Smith  and  Wace's  Diet,  of  Biogr.). 
About  285,  in  a  time  of  persecution,  he  was  banished  to  the  mines  of  Sardinia 
along  with  Pontianus  the  Roman  bishop,  and  probably  died  there.  He  was 
afterwards  venerated  at  Rome  as  a  martyr,  which  suggests  that  the  quarrel 
had  been  composed  before  he  died.  His  most  important  work,  perhaps,  was 
his  Eefutation  of  all  Heresies,  recovered  in  1851.  But  about  forty  others  are 
ascribed  to  him,  of  which  the  smaller  part  has  been  preserved.  The  forty 
titles  may  not  represent  in  all  cases  as  many  distinct  works.  RematTis,  Lagarde, 
Lips,  and  Lond.  1858  ;  Migne,  Patr.  Or.  x.  ;  Refutatio,  Duncker  and  Schneide- 
win,  Gott.  1859. 


180-313]  SCHOOL   OF   ASIA    MINOR  181 

to  recognise  the  main  interests  to  which  Christian  teaching 
ministers.  Some  of  his  contemporaries  were  trying  to 
interpret  Christianity  in  terms  of  philosophy ;  and  the 
whole  mass  of  Gnostic  theories  ran  out  into  the  wildest 
speculations.  Irenseus  distrusted  this  so-called  science,  but 
there  is  nothing  irrational  in  the  position  he  takes  up  about 
it.  "  If  a  man  cannot  find  out  the  reason  of  everything 
that  is  asked  after,  let  him  consider  that  man  is  infinitely 
less  than  God ;  man  is  not  yet  equal  to  his  Maker.  Now, 
just  in  so  far,  in  point  of  knowledge  and  searching  out  of 
reasons  is  he  less  than  Him  who  made  him.  For,  0  man, 
thou  art  not  uncreated,  nor  always  coexistent  with  God  as 
His  Word  is ;  but  from  His  goodness  thou  hast  received  a 
beginning  of  being,  and  gradually  dost  thou  learn  from  the 
Word,  the  arrangements  of  God  who  made  thee.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  we  find  ourselves  so  situated  in  regard 
to  things  heavenly  which  are  matters  of  revelation,  since 
even  of  the  things  that  are  before  our  feet,  I  mean  the 
visible  parts  of  creation,  many  escape  our  understanding; 
and  these,  too,  we  must  commit  to  God"  (ii.  25.  3; 
28.  2). 

On  a  former  page,  reference  was  made  to  a  scheme  of 
thought  which  frequently  suggests  itself  as  underlying  early 
Chris uian  utterances,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  x4pologists 
and  their  successors  {ante,  p.  89).  It  is  a  rather  scanty 
and  starved  conception  of  Christianity.  Irenaeus  also 
speaks,  not  unfrequently,  according  to  the  same  scheme. 
But  he  inherited  from  his  predecessors  in  Asia  Minor  an 
impression  of  something  richer  and  deeper.  His  mind 
is  often  occupied  with  thoughts  of  salvation  as  standing  in 
wonderful  benefits  or  gifts  which  Christ  has  achieved  for 
us,  and  which  are  ours  in  union  to  Him.  The  great  com- 
parison between  Adam  and  Christ,  suggested  by  the  Apostle 
Paul  (Rom.  v.),  is  his  point  of  departure.  We  ought  to  own, 
he  says,  a  twofold  rccapitulatio.  Adam  was  our  head,  hold- 
ing on  our  behalf  excellent  gifts.  What  we  lost  in  him  we 
receive  again — that  and  more — in  Christ.  So  He  became 
what  we  are,  that  we  might    become  what  He  is.     This 


182       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

thought  runs  into  many  illustrations.  It  constantly  appears 
how  important  it  was  for  Irenaeus  (as  for  Ignatius  before 
him)  to  maintain  the  full  reality  of  our  Lord's  human  nature. 
And  we  see  him  brooding  on  the  question  how  the  inter- 
position of  Christ  shall  be  conceived  to  avail  to  restore  so 
victoriously  the  state  of  man.  He  is  full  of  suggestions  in 
which  picturesque  contrasts  between  Adam  and  Christ 
indicate  how  the  latter  undoes  and  repairs  the  fault  of  the 
former.  Yet  he  hardly  succeeds  in  giving  connection  to 
his  thoughts,  or  bringing  out  a  tangible  theodicy  of  Eedemp- 
tion.  Generally  every  circumstance,  and  every  act  of  the 
life  of  Christ,  has  for  him  a  redeeming  force  with  reference 
to  some  aspect  of  the  sin  and  shortcoming  which  it  counter- 
works.^ Naturally,  the  Incarnation  and  the  Cross  chiefly 
hold  his  mind.  His  doctrine  of  the  incarnation  will  occupy 
us  later.  Irenaeus  felt  sympathetically  the  place  which  the 
death  of  Christ  occupies  in  the  New  Testament.  "  He  gave 
His  flesh  for  our  flesh,  and  His  soul  for  our  souls."  Since 
Christ  is  our  Head,  His  death  is  in  some  sense  our  death : 
and  it  blotted  out  our  debt.  But  how  ?  More  than  one 
later  theory  as  to  this  floats  before  us  in  the  language  of 
Irenffius.  How  far  any  of  them  can  be  fairly  imputed  to 
him  as  corresponding  to  his  deliberate  judgment,  is  a  ques- 
tion which  cannot  be  fairly  answered  without  discussion, 
which  is  not  possible  here. 

One  theory,  already  referred  to  in  connection  with  Origen, 
and  which  will  meet  us  later,  proceeded  on  the  ground  that 
men,  by  complying  with  Satan's  temptation,  became  subject 
to  his  dominion.  If  from  this  dominion  they  had  been 
rescued  by  sheer  force,  Satan  could  have  maintained  that 
the  deliverance  was  unjust.  The  death  of  Christ  then 
operated  as  a  ransom,  especially  in  so  far  as  Satan,  working 
his  will  on  Christ  by  his  instruments,  put  himself  finally  in 
the  wrong,  and  was  ousted  from  all  claims.  Baur  ascribed 
this  theory  to  Irenseus.^     And  Harnack  has  followed  him 

^  E.g.  the  disobedience  of  Adam  was  disobedience  in  the  tree,  and  the 
obedience  of  Christ  was  obedience  on  the  tree, 
'  Oesch.  d.  Versdhnung,  p.  31. 


180-313]  SCHOOL   OF   ASIA   MINOR  18S 

(relying  on  the  same  passages),  so  far  as  that  Irenseus,  accord- 
ing to  him,  at  least  recognises  something  in  this  direction 
which  rests  his  mind.  It  is  certain  that  Irenaeus  believed 
the  human  race,  as  one  of  the  consequences  of  its  trans- 
gression, to  have  fallen  under  Satan's  dominion  in  some 
sense;  and  in  saving  men  Christ  delivers  them  from  the 
power  of  the  adversary.  Also  Christ  does  this,  not  pla, 
by  violence,  but  in  a  way  more  worthy  of  God.  All  these 
are  ideas  suggested  in  Scripture,  and  generally  received 
in  antiquity.  But,  according  to  Irenaeus,  the  power  to  pro- 
duce this  effect  belongs  to  the  whole  incarnate  actings  of 
Christ,  not  merely  to  His  death  ;  and  as  far  as  appears, 
the  redemption  from  the  "  apostasy,"  or  from  the  kingdom 
of  evil,  proceeds  by  Christ's  reversing  all  that  is  wrong  in 
human  history, — embodying  for  us  and  imparting  to  us  a 
perfect  status  and  a  new  life.  So  Satan's  power  falls  of 
itself. 

Irenaeus  speaks  of  the  Lord's  Supper  as  involving  an 
offering  on  our  part;  but  this  offering  consists  in  the 
elements  which  we  bring,  and  it  is  sanctified  by  the  purity 
of  the  heart  that  offers.  These  elements,  being  blessed,  cease 
to  be  common  bread  or  common  wine — they  become  eucha- 
rist,  and  the  communicant  partaking  of  them  receives  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ.  He  does  so  in  such  a  sense 
that  his  own  body  and  blood  are  enriched  thereby,  and  are 
elevated  with  a  view  to  the  resurrection  life.^ 

In  regard  to  the  Old  Testament,  Irenaeus  represents  the 
line  of  treatment  which  prevailed  ever  after.  Barnabas 
seemed  to  hold  that  the  Christian  meanings  drawn  from  the 
Old  Testament  allegorically,  had  been  all  along  the  one 
divinely  intended  sense.  Irenaeus  distinguishes  the  Deca- 
logue, as  the  natural  and  essential  moral  law,  from  the 
ceremonial;  the  latter  is  to  be  allegorically  interpreted 
in  the  way  usual  in  the  Church ;  but  yet  the  literal  sense 
also    was    valid    and   obligatory   before   Christ  came.       It 

*  ttxo-pt-<Trla  iK  860  irpayfiiTUv  <rwe(rrT;Ki/ta,  iiriyetov  re  koX  oipaviov,  oih-us 
KoX  rii  ffdjfmra  ijfiQv  fieraXafi^dyovTa  r^s  eixo-p^rrlas,  fXTiK^ri  etvai  <f>dapTd,  7ifi> 
i\Tl8a  TTJi  elt  aluvas  diKurrdaem  lxo'^<^>  ^^*  I^  ^i  Bee  also  8.  4. 


184       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a-B. 

served  a  necessary  ptnedagogic  purpose,  placing  men  in  a 
kind  of  bondage  for  a  time ;  but  now  under  the  gospel  we 
are  set  free.  Thus  both  the  unity  of  the  Old  Testament 
with  the  New,  and  also  the  difference,  are  emphasised. 

Irenseus  held  decidedly  to  the  literal  fulfilment  of  the 
promises.  He  believed,  therefore,  in  a  state  of  things  in 
which  the  risen  saints  should  enjoy  an  earth  of  peace  and 
gladness.  In  that  state  of  things  the  ideal  relation  of  the 
material  world  to  man's  nature  should  be  realised,  and  so 
the  order  of  creation  should  be  justified.  Beyond  this  he 
appears  to  admit  the  prospect  of  something  ineffable.  Eye 
hath  not  seen  it. 

To  the  same  school  as  Irenseus,  Hippolytus  is  reckoned. 
He,  too,  wrote  in  Greek,  though  his  ministry  was  in  or  near 
Eome  itself.  Probably  the  Eoman  Church  was  passing,  in 
his  time,  from  the  Greek  stage  of  its  existence  to  the  Latin 
one;  but  in  that  case  Hippolytus  must  have  served  the 
Greek  section.  He  was  probably  more  extensively  learned 
than  Irenseus,  but  hardly  on  a  level  with  him  in  point  of 
Christian  sagacity  and  insight.  His  book  against  Heresies, 
which  has  acquired  the  rather  misleading  name  of  Philoso- 
phoumenay  is  on  the  whole  the  most  important  work  we 
owe  to  him;  and  it  reveals  passages  in  his  own 
career  which  have  led  to  much  curious  discussion. 
Features  of  his  theology  will  be  referred  to  in  con- 
nection with  the  discussions  on  the  divine  nature  and 
the  person  of  Christ.  He  represented  in  the  West  the 
learned  inquisitiveness  and  the  literary  activity  which 
Origen,  his  younger  contemporary,  exhibited  in  the  East ; 
but  Hippolytus  possessed  neither  the  imaginative  resource 
nor  the  systematising  genius  of  Origen. 

3.  School  of  Afkica 

A  third  type  is  recognised  in  the  writers  who  inaugurate 
the  Latin  Christian  literature.  This  comes  to  light  first  on 
African  soil,  and  its  earliest  representative  is  Tertullian. 
He  was  born  probably  before  a.d.  160,  became  a  Christian 


180-313]  SCHOOL   OF  AFHICA  185 

about  A.D.  192,  and  was  attracted  to  Montanism  somewhere 
about  the  close  of  the  century.  He  had  become  a  presbyter, 
probably  at  Carthage,  and  he  no  doubt  led  the  Montanist 
party  in  that  city.  He  had  received  an  excellent  education, 
had  studied  law,  and  had  read  extensively  in  history,  which 
he  valued,  and  in  philosophy,  which  as  a  Christian  he  dis- 
trusted. As  a  pagan  he  had  shared  in  the  ordinary  life  of 
Carthage ;  as  a  Christian  he  entered  keenly  into  all  Chris- 
tian interests,  resisting  and  resenting  compromise  and 
evasion.  He  may  have  died  before  240.  Some  of  his 
surviving  writings  were  composed  while  he  was  still  a 
member  of  the  Catholic  Church ;  others  represent  his  later 
Montanistic  position.^ 

Tertullian  possessed  the  gift  of  vivid,  pithy,  often  scornful 
phrase,  and  he  set  the  example  of  a  Christian  style  in  the 
Latin  tongue  with  triumphant  energy,  but  with  striking 
peculiarities.^  No  man  of  his  age  is  so  much  alive ;  and  no 
man  so  much  as  he  carries  the  reader  into  the  Christian  life 
of  the  time; — often  combative,  often  extreme,  but  always 
vigorous  and  suggestive.  He  combined  in  himself  the  Puritan 
and  High  Churchman,  with  even  a  touch  of  the  Fifth 
Monarchy  man  thrown  in.  He  was  a  married  man,  and 
one  supposes  might  not  be  quite  "  easy  to  live  with  " ;  yet 
he  might  well  be  greatly  esteemed  and  greatly  loved. 
Besides  those  which  are  lost,  more  than  thirty  of  his 
writings  have  come  down  to  us.  He  knew  Greek,  and 
composed  some  tracts  in  that  tongue;  but  to  us  he  is 
known  only  through  his  Latin  writing,  which  doubtless 
reveals  him  at  his  best. 

Tertullian  was  acquainted  with  the  work  of  Irenseus ; 
and  we  sometimes  find  in  him  the  same  ideas,  as  it  were 
advanced  a  stage.      It  was   an  orthodox   commonplace   to 

*  Operay  ed.  F.  Oehler,  3  vols.,  Lips.  1854,  is  the  most  useful  edition : 
improved  text  (without  notes)  by  Reifferscheid  and  Wissowa,  in  Corpus 
Scriptor.  Eccl.  Latin. ^  Vindol.  1890;  Kaye,  Feci.  History,  illustrated  from 
the  Works  of  Tertullian,  Cambr.  1829  ;  Neander,  Aniignosticus  or  Spirit  of 
Tert.,  transl.  by  Ryland,  Bohn,  Lond.  1851. 

^  Contrast  the  style  of  Minucius  Felix,  not  far  from  Tertullian's  period, 
and,  like  him,  a  lawyer. 


186       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

plead,  as  an  argument  against  the  wilder  heretics,  the 
consent  as  to  the  essential  verities  of  Christianity  expressed 
in  the  teaching  of  the  greater  and  older  Churches.  We 
have  met  with  this  in  Irenaeus.  But  in  the  hands  of 
TertuUian^  it  turns  into  a  method  of  controversy  with 
heretics  by  which  you  could  deprive  them  of  all  right  to 
be  heard  on  the  merits — could,  in  fact,  shut  the  door  in 
their  face,  and  refuse  to  be  troubled  with  them.  For,  as 
Tertullian  virtually  points  out,  it  was  all  well  to  draw 
truth  from  the  Scriptures,  and  especially  to  seek  in  the 
Scriptures,  as  a  man  had  opportunity,  fresh  light  and  fresh 
impulse.  But  when  a  heretic  came  impugning  any  of  the 
notorious  verities,  was  a  Catholic  Christian  to  go  to  sea 
with  him,  as  it  were,  in  a  fresh  examination  of  Scripture 
on  the  point?  Tertullian  says.  No.  The  Catholic  might 
have  limited  acquaintance  with  Scripture,  imperfect  access 
to  it,  no  right  conception  of  methods  of  interpretation,  might 
be  liable  to  be  bewildered  with  allegories  and  non-natural 
interpretations,  and  might  be  led  into  the  most  lamentable 
mistakes.  His  duty  was  to  say, — "  We,  who  live  in  the  well- 
known  faith,  which  has  been  continuous  in  the  churches 
since  the  apostles'  days,  are  the  owners  of  the  Bible;  it 
belongs  to  us :  you  who  are  outsiders  have  no  business  with 
it ;  it  is  sacrilege  for  you  to  meddle  with  it.  Therefore,  we 
will  simply  pay  not  the  least  attention  to  a  single  word  you 
say."  There  was  much  to  be  said  for  this  attitude  with 
reference  to  heretics  who,  like  Valentinus,  or  Basilides,  or 
Marcion,  propounded  as  Christianity  things  unheard  of 
till  they  came,  unheard  of  especially  in  the  old  and  large 
churches  whose  teaching  was  public  and  notorious.  And 
Tertullian  only  means  his  principle  to  apply  to  the  great 
articles,  whose  conspicuous  place  in  Christian  creeds  was 
undeniable.  In  a  wider  application  the  grounds  on  which 
he  argues  will  not  hold ;  and,  indeed,  the  debates  which  were 
to  occupy  the  third  century  could  not  fairly  be  excluded 
by  any  arguments  he  adduces,  as  those  might  be  which  the 
Gnostics  had  raised  in  the  second.     But  the  principle  was 

*  De  Proescriptione  adversus  hcBreticog, 


180-313]  SCHOOL   OF   AFRICA  187 

immensely  convenient;  it  could  be  made  the  bulwark  of 
traditions,  even  when  these  had  become  far  less  clear  and 
authoritative  than  those  were  in  whose  favour  it  was  first 
pleaded.  Every  writer  who  appeals  to  the  test  advocated 
by  Tertullian  betrays  the  influence  of  the  temptation  to 
stretch  it  beyond  the  point  which  his  own  grounds  will 
warrant.  This  is  one  of  the  lines  on  which  the  Catholic 
doctrine  of  the  authority  of  the  Church  was  destined  to 
develop  until  it  covered  the  wiiole  heavens. 

Tertullian,  like  Irenaeus,  distrusted  philosophy,  and,  as 
we  see,  he  urged  the  authority  of  tradition.  Yet  he  was 
quite  prepared  to  argue  for  Christianity  as  the  religion 
which  is  intrinsically  related  to  the  reason  of  man.  It  is 
adapted  to  human  nature  and  demanded  by  it.  Hence  the 
title  of  one  of  his  treatises,  Testimonium  Animce  Naturaliter 
Christiance.  Tertullian  therefore  is  a  thinker.  He  had 
been  trained  in  the  Stoic  philosophy,  and  his  Christian 
thinking  bears  strong  marks  at  various  points  of  the  bent 
his  mind  had  received  in  that  school.  He  refers  with 
predilection  to  Seneca, — "  Seneca,  paene  noster." 

Still  Tertullian  is  the  last  man  to  idealise  away  his 
Christian  beliefs.  Eather  he  affirms  them  roundly,  and  is 
ready  to  materialise  the  objects  of  faith  that  he  may  con- 
ceive them  energetically,  and  hold  them  firmly.  Eeality  is 
for  him  associated  with  some  sort  of  corporeity ;  at  least  he 
cannot  speak  of  the  real,  so  as  to  satisfy  himself,  without 
using  language  which  implies  as  much. 

Tertullian  received  and  reproduced  the  ideas  already 
before  us  (in  connection  with  Irenseus)  regarding  the  "re- 
capitulation" of  men,  first  in  Adam  and  afterwards  in 
Christ.  But  the  second  of  these  did  not,  apparently,  greatly 
occupy  his  mind.  The  first  did:  he  vigorously  developed 
the  conception  of  an  inherited  sinfulness — a  mtium  originis 
— which  taints  us  alL  In  this  connection  he  threw  im- 
portant thoughts  and  pithy  suggestive  phrases  into  the 
theology  of  the  Western  Church,  and  prepared  the  way  for 
Augustine.  His  concrete  way  of  conceiving  things,  and  also 
his  traducian  views  of  the  origin  of  human  souls,  contributed 


188       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

to  deepen  his  impressions.  It  cannot  be  said  that  Tertullian 
put  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  into  any  very  precise  or  final 
form.  But  he  had  a  strong  impression  of  the  presence  of 
it  as  a  force  operating  ever  since  the  Fall,  and  he  contem- 
plated all  ordinary  human  descent  as  receiving  into  itself 
more  or  less  of  this  influence,  which  is  therefore  a  constant 
fact  in  human  nature.  Still  a  seed  of  goodness  remains  in 
men ;  infancy  can  be  spoken  of  as  innocent ;  ^  and  the 
freedom  of  the  will  continues.  On  the  other  hand,  as 
already  stated,  the  influence  of  Christ's  headship  of  men 
hardly  occupied  the  mind  of  Tertullian  as  it  did  that  of 
Irenseus.  Yet  one  general  result  of  Christ's  coming  and 
of  our  faith  in  Him  is  strongly  affirmed.  This  is  grace :  a 
force  which  Tertullian  does  not  define,  but  it  is  stronger 
than  nature.  It  is  emancipating;  it  gives  play  to  man's 
free-will,  too  much  put  to  disadvantage  before,  and  rein- 
forces it  in  its  efforts  towards  attaining  eternal  life.  Grace 
is,  for  Tertullian,  a  kind  of  inspiration ;  and  he  often  speaks 
as  if  he  conceived  it  under  physical  or  material  forms. 

It  has  been  remarked,  and  truly,  that  with  Tertullian 
grace  is  opposed  to  nature,  but  not  to  merits.  Indeed,  he 
conceives  life  and  salvation  to  be  the  result  of  merit  with 
truly  mercantile  strictness ;  grace  operates  by  potentiating 
the  free-will  of  men,  so  that  it  becomes  able  to  merit,  if  it 
chooses.  Hence,  too,  the  energy  with  which  he  inculcates 
those  forms  of  Christian  life  and  work  that  tell,  as  he 
believes,  with  greatest  force  in  this  line.  Just  so  he  re- 
gards the  sins  of  believers  after  baptism  (those  that  are 
remediable)  as  put  away  by  voluntary  endurances  and 
sacrifices.  In  this  connection  he  develops  a  doctrine  of 
satisfaction,  and  is  the  first  to  use  that  word  in  Christian 
theology.  With  him  it  is  a  process  of  paying  for  our  sins 
by  our  self-denial  and  humiliation. 

Doubtless  the  controversy  with  the  Gnostics  had  some 
effect  in  disposing  Tertullian,  as  it  did  Irenaeus,  to  assert 
solicitously  the  freedom  of  the  will,  as  an  actual  practical 

1  De  JBapHsmo,  c.  18.     But  the  innocence  here  intended  is  not  necessarily 
absolute. 


180-313]  SCHOOL    OF    AFRICA  189 

fact  in  all  states  of  men.  But  the  tendency  of  Christianity 
itself  to  deepen  the  sense  of  moral  responsibility  also  acted 
here.  Neither  of  them  means  to  assert  grace  in  any  sense 
that  would  interfere  with  this  freedom.  At  the  same 
time,  neither  of  them  can  be  said  to  have  thought  deeply 
on  the  conditions  of  freedom,  or  on  the  sense  in  which 
bondage  arises  under  the  influence  of  sin. 

Tertullian,  as  we  have  seen,  could  appreciate  the  con- 
gruity  of  Christianity  to  the  essential  nature  of  man ;  he 
could  also  appreciate  the  importance  of  Christlike  disposi- 
tions. But,  in  general,  the  habit  of  his  mind  disposed  him 
to  think  of  Christianity  in  statutory  forms.  "  Do  thia  and 
live"  was  the  law  which  came  naturally  to  his  lips.  A 
faith  and  a  life  are  inculcated,  and  our  business  (under 
Christian  aids)  is  obedience,  which,  if  rendered,  becomes 
merit.  Perhaps  he  felt  personally  safest  when  he  pre- 
sented to  himself  this  aspect  of  things,  and  bowed  his 
rugged  self  to  this  yoke.  Certainly,  though  he  owned  a 
place  for  grace,  the  Pauline  wealth  and  tenderness  associated 
with  that  theme  are  strange  to  his  thinking.  Yet  he 
cherishes  a  sense  of  the  greatness  of  Christianity  which 
goes  beyond  his  schemes  of  thought ;  and  he  is  intent  on 
making  earnest  work  of  Christian  religion,  on  realising  it  as 
something  gi-eat  and  decisive. 

Tertullian,  finally,  is  the  most  human  of  the  Fathers,  keen, 
witty,  sarcastic,  argumentative,  morally  intense,  intellectually 
extreme,  capable  of  love  and  wrath  and  scorn,  and,  in  the 
midst  of  his  strong  assertions  and  high  moral  imperatives, 
a  lowly  man,  conscious  of  his  own  sin  and  ashamed.^  His 
must  have  been  a  notable  mass  of  Christian  manhood ;  and 
the  vitality  of  his  writings  is  extraordinary.^ 

In  the  same  African  province  Cyprian  ^  arose  a  genera- 

*  De  Patientia,  i. ;  De  Pmitentia,  12  ;  etc. 

*  Some  expressions  are  constantly  quoted — such  as  adv.  Praxean,  1 : 
"Prophetiam  expulit  et  lieeresim  intulit :  paracletum  fugavit  et  patrem  crnci- 
fixit."  But  a  large  anthology  could  be  collected,  e.g.  **  faciunt  et  vespae  favos, 
faciunt  ecclesias  et  Marcionistit." 

'  Opera,  Is.  Fell,  Oxon.  1682,  with  Pearson's  Anvalcs,  S.  Baluzius,  Paris, 
1726,  both  fol. ;  D.  J.  H.  Goldhora,  Lips.  1838-39,  8vo  ;  best  text,  Hartel, 


190       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

tion  later.  He,  too,  came  over  to  Christianity  after  he  had 
reached  manhood.  He  found  inspiration  and  resource  in  the 
writings  of  Tertullian,  but  presented  in  his  own  person  a 
very  distinct  type.  The  rather  turbid  fervour  of  Tertullian 
is  replaced  in  him  by  dignity,  sagacity,  and  leadership.  We 
are  told  that  before  his  conversion  he  had  practised  oratory 
and  had  taught  literature.  Possibly  his  aim  had  been  to 
make  way  on  those  lines  to  promotion  in  the  official  hier- 
archy of  the  empire.  At  all  events  he  was  a  man  of  cultiva- 
tion and  of  independent  means,  intellectually  and  morally 
distinguished,  sure  of  himself  and  prompt  to  guide  others. 
He  combined  marked  gentleness  of  manner  with  firmness  in 
essentials.  Such  a  man,  called  to  be  bishop  of  the  church  of 
Carthage,  and  fully  alive  to  the  obligations  and  the  possi- 
bilities of  his  office,  could  not  but  be  a  great  churchman. 

First  of  all,  however,  he  was  a  Christian ;  and  he  carried 
into  his  Christianity  a  fine  thoroughness  and  singleness  of 
heart.  Before  his  conversion  his  mind  had  been  exercised 
about  the  lofty  standard  of  purity  and  well  -  doing  which 
Christianity  proposes;  and  at  that  stage  he  judged  the 
moral  change  it  called  for  so  difficult  as  to  be  impossible. 
But  when,  persuaded  at  last,^  he  came  to  baptism,  accepting 
and  claiming  the  life  of  the  new  kingdom,  then  doubts 
vanished,  light  broke  in,  what  had  been  impossible  became 
practical,  that  in  him  which  had  served  sin  became  subject 
to  God ;  and  he  could  appeal  to  those  who  knew  him  as  to 
the  decisive  character  of  the  change.  This  was  God's  doing, 
as  he  tells  us,  "  it  is  of  God,  of  God  I  repeat,  all  our  life,  all 
our  strength,  the  vigour  of  the  present,  the  hope  for  the 
future."  Believing  that  thorough  Christianity  implied  self- 
denial  as  to  wealth  and  ease,  he  resolved  to  remain  im- 
married;  and  he  sold  his  property  that  he  might  dis- 
tribute the  proceeds  among  the  poor.^ 

8  vols.,  Vindob.  1867.  Life  by  Pontius  the  deacon  in  3rd  vol.  of  Hartel; 
Archbishop  Benson,  Life  and  Times,  Lond.  1898. 

*  The  presbyter  Csecilianus  was  the  chief  agent  in  his  conversion.     As  to 
what  follows,  ikd,  ad  Don.  5. 

*  Considering  the  period  and  the  literary  training  of  Cyprian,  he  might 


180-313]  SCHOOL   OF   AFRICA  191 

He  early  attracted  the  notice  and  confidence  of  the 
Carthaginian  church,  almost  immediately  became  a  pres- 
byter, discharged  his  duties  with  fervour  and  efficiency, 
and  in  a.d.  248,  while  his  baptism  was  still  compara- 
tively recent,  was  elected  bishop.  Older  presbyters  might 
naturally  resent  so  rapid  promotion  of  a  neophyte,  but 
the  church  would  have  it  so.  This  personal  element  had 
its  share  in  creating  some  of  the  troubles  he  afterwards 
encountered. 

The  chief  debates  in  which  he  was  involved  were  those 
regarding  the  proper  treatment  of  the  lapsed,  and  the  re- 
baptism  of  heretics.  In  the  second  year  of  Cyprian's 
episcopate  the  Decian  persecution  began.  The  Church 
had  enjoyed  comparative  tranquillity  for  thirty  years,  and 
the  suddenness  as  well  as  the  severity  of  the  blow  told 
heavily.  Cyprian  speaks  of  his  church  as  devastated  by 
the  rush  of  defection  which  set  in.  It  involved  even  a 
number  of  his  presbyters.  But  very  many  of  those  who 
stretched  their  consciences  to  comply  with  pagan  rites,  in 
order  to  avert  persecution,  had  no  wish  to  be  finally 
separated  from  Christianity.  What  was  to  be  done  about 
these  "  lapsed  "  ? 

It  was  not  reckoned  unfaithful  in  Christians  to  avoid 
persecution  by  withdrawing  from  their  usual  dwelling-places 
to  live  where  they  were  less  known.^  Eather,  such  persons, 
especially  if  the  withdrawal  involved  serious  loss  and  dis- 
comfort, were  regarded  as,  in  their  degree,  confessors.  The 
lapsed  were  those  who,  in  some  way,  denied  their  faith, 
generally  by  some  act  of  conformity  to  paganism.*  All 
these — sacrificati,  tJiurificati,  acta  facienteSy  lihellatici — were 
held  to  have  denied  their  Lord,  and  by  that  sin  they  had 

have  been  in  danger  of  cnltivating  the  far-fetched  and  tawdry  style  affected 
by  the  later  rhetoricians.  There  is  one  passage  {Ad  Don.  1)  in  which  one 
seems  to  see  a  trace  of  that  kind  of  fine  writing.  But  if  so,  Christianity, 
fixing  his  mind  on  great  interests,  came  to  the  rescue.  His  style,  in  general, 
is  notably  clear,  manly,  and  effective. 

*  An  extreme  party  condemned  this  oonise,  but  not  Cyprian,  nor  th^ 
Church  generally. 

*  See  amUt  p.  143,  note  2. 


192        THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

fallen  from  their  position  as  members  of  His  Church. 
These  people  were  numerous,  some  of  them  no  doubt  were 
influential,  not  a  few  were  near  relations  of  persons  who 
still  held  their  position  in  the  church,  and  they  pressed 
to  be  restored. 

The  ground  taken  by  the  bishop  contemplated  eventual 
restoration  as  the  rule ;  but  not  hurriedly,  nor  as  a  matter 
of  course,  nor  in  the  heat  and  disorder  of  the  persecution. 
Cyprian  succeeded  in  procuring  the  approbation  of  neigh- 
bouring bishops  for  this  policy.  Moreover,  the  same  ques- 
tion having  arisen  at  Eome,  Cyprian  succeeded  in  securing 
the  adherence  of  the  authorities  of  that  church  also  for  the 
policy  which  he  approved. 

Both  at  Carthage  and  at  Rome  the  contention  on  this 
subject  led  to  schism,  a  lax  party  separating  at  Carthage,  an 
ultra-rigorous  one  at  Eome.  Both  organised  as  independent 
churches ;  but  the  schism  at  Carthage  was  shortlived.  The 
Roman  separatists,  headed  by  Novatian,  became  a  sect 
known  in  the  West  for  the  most  part  as  Novatianists,  in  the 
East  more  commonly  as  Kadapol,  puritans,  and  it  continued 
to  exist  for  centuries.  Some  details  of  these  disputes  will 
meet  us  elsewhere.  Certain  effects  of  them  may  be  adverted 
to  now. 

The  assertion  of  the  right  to  separate,  and  to  carry  on 
church  life  on  separate  lines,  raised  questions  that  were 
new  in  some  respects.  Gnosticism  had  been  got  rid  of  by 
an  appeal  to  the  consent  of  the  churches  as  to  the  known 
fundamentals  of  their  faith.  Montanists  had  been  more 
kindly  regarded  by  many  catholic  Christians;  but  their 
assertion  of  a  new  revelation  led  to  consequences  so  un- 
manageable, that  in  the  end  of  the  day  they  were  practically 
treated,  by  general  consent,  as  having  placed  themselves 
outside  of  the  true  Church.  Now,  however,  societies  were 
starting  in  which  the  common  faith  was  retained,  and  which 
based  any  peculiarities  of  practice  upon  traditions  that  had 
a  plausible  claim  to  authenticity.  They  claimed  that  under 
constraint  of  conscience  they  were  exercising  a  right,  or 
performing  a  duty,  pertaining  to  orthodox  Christians;  and 


130-313]  SCHOOL   OF   AFRICA  193 

they  carried  with  them,  as  they  held,  the  life  and  powers, 
the  character  and  the  functions,  of  churches  of  Christ.  If 
this  claim  was  valid,  cases  of  the  kind  would  multiply,  and 
the  influence  of  the  great  Church,  as  representing  or  em- 
bodying Christianity,  was  likely  to  be  impaired.  Cyprian 
was  exactly  the  man  to  see  the  danger ;  and  he  met  it  by 
asserting  that  such  societies  were  no  part  of  the  Church, 
and  calling  on  catholic  Christians  to  treat  all  claims,  pro- 
ceedings, and  administrations  on  the  part  of  separatists 
as  simply  null  and  void.  Men  who  separated  were  as  truly 
outside  of  Christianity  as  the  heretic  or  the  apostate. 

This  is  the  theme  of  the  tract,  De  CatholicoB  Ucdesice 
Unitate,  which  was  written  in  251.  It  is  the  next  great 
step  in  succession  to  Tertullian's  De  Frcescriptione  in  the  way 
of  building  up  the  fabric  of  church  power.  It  is  short  (about 
twenty  pages),  trenchant,  and  peremptory.  God  is  one, — 
Christ  is  one, — He  appointed  His  Church  to  be  one.  That 
unity  is  first  embodied  in  the  apostles,  then  in  the  bishops, 
who  are  in  communion  with  one  another  all  over  the  world. 
To  break  loose  from  the  authentic  bishops  (assuming  them 
to  be  orthodox  and  recognised),  is  to  cut  oneself  off  from 
Christianity  and  from  salvation,  for  it  is  to  cut  oneself  off 
from  the  Church.  We  lose  salvation  by  schism  as  well  as 
by  heresy.  He  has  not  God  for  his  father  who  has  not  the 
Church  for  his  mother.  All  the  topics  are  here — the  ark, 
the  dove,  the  spouse  who  is  the  only  one  of  her  mother, 
"  Thou  art  Peter,"  the  ray,  the  fountain,  the  unity  of  the 
Trinity,  Korah  and  his  company — which  have  found  their 
place  in  confirmation  sermons  century  after  century.  Hence 
those  who  claim  to  be  bishops  and  priests  in  the  separated 
societies  can  do  "  nothing " :  their  administrations  are  vain, 
and  their  sacrifices  are  no  sacrifices ;  their  martyrdom  when 
they  suffer  is  no  martyrdom.  They  may  be  able  to  pro- 
phesy and  cast  out  evil  spirits,  but  Christ  answers  that  in 
Matt.  vii.  22.  Nothing  can  be  more  clear,  thorough,  and 
relentless.  The  unity  of  God,  of  Christ,  of  truth,  of  love, 
is  to  be  manifest  in  the  Church.  But  the  Church  must 
chiefly  hold  together  through  its  bishops,  who  are,  besides, 
13 


194       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

the  most  representative  men  in  all  the  churches.  There- 
fore the  unity  is  the  unity  of  the  faithful  with  the  (united) 
episcopate.^  It  so  happens  that  Cyprian  was  right  in  the 
main  both  in  principle  and  in  spirit  against  the  dissidents 
at  Carthage.  But  whether  the  unity  he  postulates  is  the 
kind  of  imity  which  Christ  chiefly  desires  to  see  in  His 
Church,  and  whether  variation  from  it  entails  necessarily 
the  consequences  which  Cyprian  denounces,  is  quite  another 
question.  The  point  on  which  there  can  be  no  question  is 
the  ecclesiastical  efficiency  of  the  principle  laid  down.  Also 
it  is  simple,  and  saves  a  world  of  discussion.  Possess  men's 
minds  with  the  conviction  that  separation  from  the  official 
framework  of  the  Church  is  equivalent  to  renunciation  of 
Christ  and  of  His  benefits,  and  you  erect  the  strongest 
possible  defence  against  schism.  Unfortunately,  while 
Cyprian  and  his  followers  are  eloquent  about  the  lack  of 
love  on  the  part  of  the  separatists,  they  have  not  seen  that 
the  passions  of  scorn  and  hate  are  the  effective  forces  in 
the  system  by  which  they  themselves  propose  to  fortify  the 
unity. 

The  episcopate  occupies  a  decisive  place  as  the  criterion 
of  unity  on  Cyprian's  principle.  Yet  Cyprian  does  not 
suppose  that  the  bishop  can  claim  despotic  power.  In  re- 
gard to  discipline,  for  example,  he  contemplates  the  faithful 
members  of  the  flock,  as  well  as  the  inferior  clergy,  joining 
in  examining  the  cases,  and  the  decisions  are  to  be  such  as 
satisfy  them.  But  he  evidently  contemplates  the  general 
principles  on  which  discipline  is  to  proceed  as  proper  to  be 
episcopally  fixed.  Therefore  he  strengthened  his  position 
by  assembling  councils  of  the  bishops,  as  far  as  they  could 
be  got  together.  When  they  approved  the  method  which 
Cyprian  proposed,  that   method  could  then  be  insisted  on, 

*  The  unity  of  the  Church  is  reflected  and  guaranteed  in  the  unity  of  the 
episcopate  ;  but  Cyprian  does  not  lay  stress  on  orders  strictly  so  called.  He 
does  lay  stress  on  a  bishop  being  duly  elected  and  settled  in  his  church  with 
the  proper  consents  of  people,  clergy,  and  neighbouring  bishops,  but  he  does 
not  test  apostolic  succession  more  precisely.  And  the  fact  of  a  schismatio 
congregation  having  procured  the  presence  of  authentic  bishops  to  ordain 
ministers  for  them  would  not  better  their  case  in  his  eyes. 


180-313]  SCHOOL   OF   AFRICA  195 

at  Carthage  or  anywhere  else,  as  having  the  sanction  of  the 
Church.  This  is  one  of  the  ways  in  which  the  episcopate 
acquired  the  exceptional  strength  needed,  if  they  were  to 
occupy  the  decisive  place  ascribed  to  them  by  Cyprian's 
theory.  Bishops  meet  in  council  and  agree  about  general 
rules;  then  the  flock  may  have  a  considerable  voice  in  the 
application  of  them,  under  the  presidency  of  their  own 
bishop. 

Very  soon  another  question  arose  which  threatened  the 
episcopal  unity  on  which,  according  to  Cyprian,  so  much 
depended.  It  was  that  concerning  the  rebaptizing  of  heretics. 
This  dispute  brought  Cyprian  into  collision  with  Stephen  of 
Rome ;  but  it  was  not  pushed  to  an  issue  at  this  time.^ 

Cyprian  shared  the  feeling  that  the  world  was  in  its 
decaying  age,  that  the  Lord's  return  to  judgment  was  not 
far  off,  and  that  meanwhile  persecutions  were  the  natural 
indications  that  Antichrist  might  soon  be  revealed.  Yet, 
remarkably  enough,  for  practical  purposes  he  counts  upon 
the  existing  persecution  ending,  and  the  Church  having  peace 
to  put  her  affairs  again  in  order.  This  seems  to  indicate 
that  Christianity  was  so  rooting  itself  in  the  life  of  society, 
and  had  become  so  visibly  a  part  of  the  existing  world,  that 
persecution  was  felt  to  be  anomalous  and  unreasonable ;  it 
was  a  line  of  action  which  would  have  to  be  given  up  by 
practical  statesmen. 

Meanwhile,  under  Valerian,  persecution  continued  on  an 
extensive  scale.  In  the  Decian  persecution  Cyprian  had 
withdrawn  into  concealment,  judging  it  his  duty,  as  far  as 
he  could,  to  prolong  his  services  to  his  church  at  a  critical 
time.  His  opponents  in  Carthage  at  that  time  could 
represent  his  conduct  in  this  respect  as  pusillanimous ;  but 
Cyprian  was  not  misunderstood  by  the  mass  of  his  flock, 
and  he  was  able  from  his  retirement  to  give  the  requisite 
guidance.  Under  Valerian  he  seems  to  have  decided  that 
reasons  no  longer  existed  for  avoiding  arrest,  although  prob- 
ably he  could  have  done  so  with  success.  It  would  have 
been  convenient  for  the  procurator  of  the  province,  at  that 
» See  below,  Chap.  XV. 


196       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

time  an  invalid,  to  try  him  at  Utica ;  but  Cyprian  chose  to 
be  tried  at  Carthage,  and  he  brought  that  to  pass.  The 
last  letter  in  the  collection  of  his  epistles  runs  thus, — 

"  Cyprian    to    the    presbyters,  deacons,  and  the  whole 
people, — 

"Having  received  information,  brethren  most  beloved, 
that  warrants  had  been  issued  for  my  removal  to  Utica,  I 
was  advised  by  my  friends  to  retire  for  a  time  from  my 
gardens ;  ^  and  I  agreed  to  do  so  for  a  reason  which  I 
judged  sufficient : — it  is  fitting,  namely,  for  a  bishop  to  con- 
fess his  Lord  in  the  city  in  which  he  presides  over  the 
Lord's  Church,  that  so  His  whole  people  may  be  glorified  by 
the  bishop's  confession  in  their  presence.  For  a  bishop, 
who  is  called  to  confess  his  faith,  speaks  in  that  moment 
under  a  divine  afflatus,  and  as  the  mouthpiece  of  all.  Now 
then  the  honour  of  our  church,  our  glorious  church  of 
Carthage,  will  suffer  loss,  if  at  Utica  I  should  make  my 
confession  and  receive  sentence,  and  thence  depart  as  a 
martyr  to  my  Lord ; — therefore  it  is  my  part,  on  your  behalf 
and  my  own,  to  pray  continually,  making  all  possible  sup- 
plications, that  among  you  I  may  make  my  confession,  suffer 
and  depart.  I  am  waiting  therefore  in  this  retired  hiding- 
place  for  the  return  of  the  proconsul  to  Carthage,  and  then 
I  shall  hear  from  him  what  the  emperors  have  ordered  with 
respect  to  Christian  laymen  and  bishops,  and  will  say  what 
the  Lord  in  that  hour  will  give  me  to  speak. 

"  Ye  meanwhile,  beloved,  according  to  the  rule  which  at 
all  times  I  have  delivered  to  you  from  the  Lord's  words, 
and  according  to  what  you  have  often  heard  me  preach, 
keep  peace  and  quietness ;  do  not  let  any  of  you  create  dis- 
turbance for  the  brethren,  nor  offer  yourselves  ultroneously 
to  the  Gentiles.  For,  when  a  man  is  apprehended  and 
delivered  up,  then  he  ought  to  speak,  inasmuch  as  God 
dwelling  in  us  speaks  in  that  hour;  and  He  desires  us 
rather  to  confess  than  to  profess.     What  else  it  is  suitable 

^  A  pleasant  residence,  inherited  apparently.     Cyprian  had  sold  it  at  thq 
time  of  his  conversion,  but  friends  repurchased  it  for  his  use. 


180-313]  SCHOOL    OF   AFRICA  197 

for  us  to  attend  to,  before  the  proconsul  passes  sentence  on 
me  as  a  confessor  of  the  name  of  God,  we  shall  arrange  in 
personal  conference,  with  the  Lord's  guidance.  My  beloved 
brethren,  may  the  Lord  Jesus  deign  to  preserve  you  stead- 
fast in  His  Church." 

No  opportunity  occurred  for  any  such  remarkable  testi- 
mony as  Cyprian  had  thought  it  might  be  given  to  him  to 
utter.  He  was  perfectly  firm  and  dignified,  answering  the 
judge's  questions  with  Eoman  brevity.  The  proconsul  ap- 
parently thought  it  his  duty  to  the  emperor  to  speak 
severely  to  Cyprian  as  the  ringleader  of  a  wicked  sect, 
whose  death  might  be  a  warning  to  the  rest.  But,  on  the 
whole,  the  martyr  seems  to  have  been  treated  with  the 
consideration  due  to  a  remarkable  personality.  He  received 
sentence  with  the  response,  "  Thanks  be  to  God,"  and  died 
by  the  sword  A.D.  261.  The  proconsul,  it  was  remarked, 
pronounced  sentence  with  difficulty,  and  he  died  a  few  days 
after. 


CHAPTEE    XI 

Christ  and  God 

Early  Christian  thinking  included  various  elements  in  which 
Jews  and  Gentiles  could  claim  their  part.  But  always, 
whether  in  the  foreground  or  the  background,  is  the  con- 
viction about  Christ,  "  We  know  that  the  Son  of  God  has 
come,  and  hath  given  us  an  understanding  that  we  might 
know  Him  that  is  true;  and  we  are  in  Him  that  is  true, 
even  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ :  this  is  the  true  God  and 
everlasting  life."  This  great  belief  transformed  and  lifted 
everything;  it  gave  new  significance  to  every  old  thought 
which  it  happened  to  appropriate. 

Hence  the  subject  destined  most  profoundly  to  exercise 
the  Christian  mind  was  the  question  about  Christ.  What 
is,  essentially  and  adequately,  the  Christian  way  of  thinking 
in  regard  to  Christ  ?  In  regard  to  the  various  lines  of 
investigation  that  might  be  pursued  under  this  head,  a 
modern  student  may  ask  whether  the  Church  adequately 
pursued  them  all,  or,  if  one  had  to  be  selected,  chose  wisely 
that  which  she  preferred.  That,  however,  is  a  question 
which  must  not  be  hastily  answered.  In  the  early  Church 
much  that  concerned  Christ  certainly  was  left  to  the  in- 
artificial treatment  of  devout  sentiment  and  homiletical 
meditation.  The  line  of  inquiry  on  which  Christian  minds 
gradually  settled  was  that  which  concerned  the  nature  of 
Christ  as  related  to  His  Father,  and  also  as  related  to 
man  or  to  human  conditions.  For  the  questions  here 
arising  were  those  on  which  it  was  felt  needful  to  be  pre- 
pared with  "Yes"  or  "No,"  if  clear  conceptions  were  to 
be  formed  of  the  meaning  of  Christ's  appearance,  the  kind 

198 


A.D.  180-313]  CHRIST   AND   GOD  199 

of  benefit  He  brought,  and  the  attitude  which  the  Christian 
mind  should  take  towards  Him.  It  was  not  unnatural  that 
in  thinking  out  the  world  of  personalities  and  facts  and 
forces  to  which  a  Christian  belongs,  a  leading  question 
should  seem  to  be  where^  in  that  world,  Christ  should  find 
His  place. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  specific  influences 
outside  of  the  Church  conspired  to  detain  men's  minds  upon 
the  same  question.  Eeference  has  been  made  to  the  activity 
of  non-Christian  thought.  But  that  thought  laboured  much 
upon  the  problem  of  the  unity  of  the  world, — in  particular, 
how  the  world  we  know,  the  world  of  decay  and  change, 
should  be  conceived  to  derive  from  an  immutable  and  im- 
material source ;  and  how  the  ideal  elements,  the  goodness 
and  beauty  which  mind  discerns,  ally  themselves  to  that 
which  is  not  mental  but  material.  Theories  had  been 
struck  out,  and  phraseology  had  been  elaborated,  of  which 
use  could  be  made  in  explaining  Christian  thoughts  about 
Christ.  This  experiment,  no  doubt,  had  its  dangers.  The 
explanation  offered  in  the  light  of  these  materials  might 
expound  the  faith  or  might  betray  it.  Yet  the  effort  could 
not  be  escaped.  Certain  ideas  were  in  the  minds  of  men ; 
and  ideas  must  be  compared  if  men  wish  to  come  to  an 
understanding  with  one  another. 

Meanwhile  among  the  Christians  themselves  different 
ideas  were  found,  and  it  had  not  yet  become  clear  how  far 
these  could  coexist  permanently  in  the  same  Christian 
fellowship.  Many  Jews  had  expected  the  Messiah  in  the 
character  of  a  remarkable  or  highly  favoured  man.  There 
were  Jewish  Christians  who  had  accepted  Jesus  as  such  a 
Messiah ;  ^  and  from  time  to  time  afterwards,  as  we  shall 

*  Justin  Martyr,  Dial.  c.  Tryph,  47..  These  received  the  name  of  Ebionites, 
the  poor — perhaps  originally  a  name  of  humility,  which  became  a  name  of 
contempt.  Wliether  the  Nazarenes  or  Christians  of  the  circumcision,  who 
maintained  a  church  fellowship  apart  from  that  of  Gentile  Christians,  were 
also  Ebionites  in  the  sense  of  rejecting  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  repudiating 
the  Apostle  Paul,  is  a  question  which  has  been  much  discussed.  The  result 
seems  to  be  that  while  some  of  the  Judaising  Christians  held  higher  views  of 
our  Lord's  person  and  of  the  authority  of  Paul,  and  others  held  lower,  the 


200       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.O. 

find,  teachers  appear,  not  apparently  Jewish,  who  put  for- 
ward a  view  radically  the  same,  but  varied  in  detail.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  were  Docetists  who  regarded  human 
nature,  at  least  in  its  material  elements,  as  impure,  and 
unfit  to  be  assumed  by  the  Saviour ;  they  held,  therefore, 
that  our  Lord's  body  was  apparent  only.  This  was  a  phase 
of  Gnosticism,  or,  at  least.  Gnosticism  absorbed  it.  Docetism 
soon  died  out.  Various  theories  owned  the  reality  of  the 
Lord's  body,  but  conceived  it  to  be  animated  not  by  a 
human  soul  but  by  some  spiritual  being  from  a  higher 
sphere.  Besides,  those  who  asserted  with  great  emphasis 
the  divine  nature  of  Christ,  sometimes  attenuated  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  human  nature,  while  recognising  it  in  terms. 
These  varieties  existed,  and  some  of  them  may  have 
existed  more  widely  than  can  now  be  established  by  proof. 
Yet,  after  all,  the  broad  impression,  to  start  with,  is  that 
for  the  general  Christian  mind  Christ  was  both  divine  and 
human.  Everything  about  Him  suggested  it.  On  the  one 
hand.  He  was  born  of  a  woman,  grew  to  manhood  in  a 
human  family,  companied  with  men,  suffered  and  died.  On 
the  other  hand.  He  revealed  the  Father,  He  achieved  re- 
demption, He  was  the  object  of  Christian  trust  and  worship. 
He  presided  over  the  destiny  of  men,  He  was  to  be  their 
judge.  He  stood  before  the  Christian  mind,  unique,  the 
meeting-place  of  God  and  man.  In  such  a  personage  it 
was  not  difficult  to  own  both  a  human  presence  and  the 
divine.  But  when  men  came  to  explanations  they  had  to 
deal  with  the  problems  set  for  them,  first,  by  the  great 
faith  of  the  divine  unity,  and,  second,  by  the  unity  of  Christ 
Himself;  and  the  solutions  were  apt  to  be  biassed  by  the 
element  which  took  the  lead.  One  may  believe  that  Christ 
is  divine  and  also  at  the  same  time  human,  or  that  He  is 
human  and  also  at   the   same  time   divine.     The  positions 

proportion  of  adherents  of  the  two  views  varied  at  different  times ;  and  that 
the  application  of  the  term  Nazarene  to  denote  peculiarly  a  more  orthodox 
and,  as  regards  the  Gentiles,  a  more  friendly  section,  distinct  from  the 
Ebionites,  cannot  be  proved  for  the  second  and  third  century,  though  we 
meet  with  it  in  the  fourth,     Epiph.  Hoer.  30. 


180-313]  CHRIST   AND    GOD  201 

are  equivalent,  and  are  both  true  from  the  point  of  view  of 
Church  orthodoxy.  But  different  tendencies  can  attach 
themselves  to  the  one  and  to  the  other.  The  first  suggests 
that  thought  should  begin  with  our  Lord's  pre-existence  in 
the  higher  or  highest  nature,  and  proceed  to  the  assump- 
tion of  the  human.  The  other  does  not  exclude  this  view ; 
but  to  some  minds  it  has  rather  suggested  ideas  of  human 
fidelity  in  goodness,  attaining  at  last  a  certain  deification. 
The  first  was  decidedly  the  line  of  thought  which  prevailed 
in  the  Church,  and  those  who  took  it  believed  themselves  to 
be  followers  of  the  Apostles  Paul  and  John,  and  the  writer 
to  the  Hebrews.  The  second  took  shape  in  theories  which 
contemplated  human  nature  in  the  man  Jesus  as  respond- 
ing to  happy  influences  from  above,  until  exceptional  attain- 
ment is  rewarded  and  crowned  by  divine  dignity  and 
dominion. 

The  thread  of  which  the  Christian  thinking  chiefly 
availed  itself  for  guidance  amid  competing  alternatives  was 
that  indicated  by  X0709,  the  Word  or  Eeason.  The  vov<i 
and  the  Ideas  of  Plato,  and  still  more  the  X070?  or  Xoyoi 
of  the  Stoics,  had  fixed  attention  on  a  divine  element,  a 
presence  in  the  world,  which  makes  the  creation  rational, 
and  which  makes  man,  at  least,  a  reasoning  creature.  More 
lately,  Philo  had  concentrated  attention  on  this  thought, 
because  he  made  the  Logos  the  centre  of  the  explanations 
and  combinations  by  means  of  which  he  philosophised  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures.  The  fact  itself  (the  unity,  persistency, 
and  energy  of  the  rational  principle  which  pervades  the 
world)  was  certain,  whatever  name  men  called  it  by ;  but 
the  name,  and  the  thinking  which  had  gathered  about  it, 
had  concentrated  attention  on  the  thing.  On  the  one  hand, 
this  is  true  of  God,  that  He  yields  a  rational  energy  which 
gives  being  and  meaning  to  the  world ;  on  the  other  hand, 
it  is  true  of  the  world,  that  amid  all  its  variety  and  its 
instability,  it  is  pervaded  by  this  constant  element  or  in- 
fluence, purer  and  higher  than  itself.  The  world  embodies 
the  ideal.  It  was  felt  then  by  Christians  to  be  a  vivid  and 
helpful  thing  to  say  to  the  educated  thought  of  the  time, 


:202  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

"  Christ  is  the  Logos,  manifesting  His  personality,  and 
coming  among  us  in  the  flesh,  that  He  may  effectually  heal 
and  save  us."  But  the  expression  was  not  only  vivid,  it 
was  authorised ;  it  had  been  sanctioned  in  this  sense  by 
the  Apostle  John  in  the  prologue  of  his  Gospel.^ 

But  while  the  discussions  of  the  higher  nature  of  our 
Lord  were  destined  to  follow  by  preference  the  trains  of 
thought  which  this  word  suggests,  it  must  not  be  imagined 
that  the  main  articles  of  the  Church's  faith  concerning 
Christ  hang  solely  on  this  phrase.  The  divinity  of  Christ, 
and  His  special  concern  in  originating  and  sustaining 
creation,  are  involved  in  utterances  of  His  own,  and  are 
taught  by  Paul  and  the  writer  to  the  Hebrews,  as  well  as 
by  John.  And  so  the  writers  who  precede  Justin,  such  as 
Clement  and  Ignatius,  perhaps  also  Hermas  (whose  teaching, 
however,  is  peculiar),  have  no  difiBculty  in  expressing  their 
faith  without  the  use  of  the  Logos  line  of  speech.  The 
round  assertions  of  Ignatius  in  particular  are  very  striking.^ 

The  train  of  ideas  which  the  Logos  suggested  had  an 
obvious  interest  and  value  for  the  Apologists.     It  enabled 

^  No  doubt  it  is  possible  to  suggest  a  different  account  of  the  matter.  It 
can  be  said  that  a  Christian  school  early  in  the  second  century,  thinking  out 
the  problems  about  Christ,  found  courage  to  make  this  bold  advance  on 
Philo,  and  to  assert  Christ  to  have  been  the  Logos  personal  and  incarnate. 
Then  we  may  suppose  Justin  Martyr  to  have  taken  up  the  theory  either 
under  the  influence  or  apart  from  the  influence  of  the  Johaniiine  Gospel. 
That  Gospel  itself,  originating,  on  this  view  of  things,  about  the  same  time, 
may  be  thought  to  grow,  as  far  as  this  element  is  concerned,  out  of  the  same 
sources.  But  apart  from  detailed  critical  arguments,  all  this  is  improbable. 
It  is  incongruous  to  suppose  that  Justin  Martyr  could  affirm  the  Logos  doc- 
trine so  unhesitatingly  as  he  does,  unless  he  felt  that  he  had  behind  him 
conclusive  Christian  authority.  And  the  only  authority,  but  then  an  adequate 
one,  was  the  wonderfully  impressive  assertion  of  the  same  thing  in  the  Gospel 
which  bore  the  name  of  the  beloved  disciple.  Justin  and  the  rest  speculate 
with  courage  about  the  Logos,  because  Logos  is  for  them  an  authentic  and 
accredited  truth  of  Christianity,  which  demands  to  be  explained  and 
understood. 

^  Ejph.  7.  "  One  only  physician  of  flesh  and  of  spirit,  generate  and  re- 
generate, God  in  man,  true  life  in  death,  Son  of  Mary  and  Son  of  God,  first 
passible  and  then  impassible."     On  the  last  clause,  see  note  in  Lightfoot. 

Fol.  3.  "Await  Him  who  is  above  every  reason,  the  Eternal,  the  In- 
visible, who  became  visible  for  our  sake,  the  impalpable,  the  impassible,  who 
suffered  for  our  sake,  who  endured  in  all  ways  for  our  sake." 


180-313]  CHRIST   AND   GOD  203 

them  at  once  to  define  the  Christian  conception  of  Christ 
in  relation  to  an  immense  mass  of  pre-Christian  thought, 
just  because  the  word  Logos  belonged  to  that  region  of 
thought,  and  had  been  borrowed  from  it.  And  as  Christian 
faith  must  understand  itself  not  only  by  brooding  on  itself, 
but  by  comparison  and  contrast  with  the  thinking  of  the 
world  in  which  Christianity  lives,  this  aspect  of  it  may 
well  be  of  permanent  value.  Yet  for  the  domestic  interests 
of  the  faith,  the  use  of  this  word  is  not  indispensable. 
The  Church  has  framed  all  her  great  creeds  without  em- 
ploying it.^ 

The  Logos  doctrine  brings  out  the  point  in  which  Christ 
exceeds  all  philosophies,  and  all  philosophies  stop  short  of 
Christ.  Philosophy  aims  at  the  immanent  timeless  Ideal, 
ever  equal  to  itself.  But  Christianity  asserts  an  essential 
historical  crisis,  making  all  new — the  Word  was  made 
flesh. 

Difficulties  which  beset  this  line  of  thought  become 
plain  enough  in  the  case  of  its  earliest  representative, 
Justin  Martyr,  as  well  as  in  most  of  his  successors.  In 
the  most  important  respects  Justin  affirms  what  the  pre- 
vailing faith  of  the  Church  has  affirmed  ever  since.  The 
Logos  belongs  to  the  sphere  of  the  creating  nature,  not  of 
the  created.  He  is  identified  with  the  divine  reason  or 
wisdom,  and  that  in  such  a  sense  that  to  Him  is  ascribed 
not  merely  a  seed  of  it,  or  a  likeness  of  it,  but  the  whole, 
the  fulness  of  it.  Yet  this  is  not  to  be  taken  so  that  the 
Logos  is  merely  a  power  or  attribute  of  the  Father ;  He  is, 
on  the  contrary,  "something  numerically  distinct" ;2  in 
some  sense  or  other  there  is  plurality.  The  physical  image 
which  Justin  prefers  to  use  in  order  to  illustrate  the  rela- 
tion .of  this  second  to  the  first,  is  that  of  a  flame  which 
lights  up  another  flame ;  the  second  is  of  the  first,  it  has 
the  nature  of  the  first  inscrutably  communicated  to  it,  but 
it  subsists  as  something  distinct. 

*  It  is  introduced  in  the  Creed  of  Chalcedon,  451,  but  even  there  holds 
no  important  or  decisive  place. 

•  'Aptdfjuf  irepov  Tt. 


^04  i^HE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHQRCH  [a.T). 

Now,  as  Justin  contemplates  the  Logos  as  the  divine 
wisdom,  so  far  as  that  can  he  recognised  in  creation  or  pro- 
vidence or  revelation,  he  accepts  ideas  which  may  be  roughly 
represented  by  saying  that  God  in  His  prime  perfection  is 
above  all  thought  and  all  contact  with  the  creatures,  best 
conceived  by  contrasting  Him  with  all  that  we  see  or  know 
in  nature  and  history ;  and  this  is  the  Father ;  while  the 
Logos  is  God  as  He  condescends  to  plan  and  care  for  a 
world  of  creatures,  and  at  last  appears  on  earth  for  their 
salvation.  In  this  way  the  contrast  between  the  Father 
and  the  Logos  becomes  emphatic.  While  the  Father  re- 
cedes into  regions  which  transcend  thought,  the  Logos  seems 
to  be  the  first  step  down  towards  creatures,  and  exists,  as 
it  were,  for  the  sake  of  creatures  and  with  a  view  to  them. 
And  this  impression  is  deepened  by  another  element  in 
Justin's  scheme.  He  identifies  the  Word  with  the  un- 
beginning  wisdom  of  the  Father.  But  he  appears  to  teach 
that  the  Word  was  not  with  the  Father  always,  as  dpidfiw 
erepov  tl.  Primarily  existing  only  as  the  wisdom  of  the 
Father,  that  is,  as  an  attribute.  He  was  evoked  into  per- 
sonal subsistence  with  a  view  to  the  creation  of  the  world, — 
and  in  this  sense  He  had  a  beginning,  though  the  divine 
wisdom  as  such  had  none ;  and  He  owes  His  beginning  to 
the  hvvajjii^  and  ^ovXrj,  might  and  counsel,  of  the  Father. 
These  were  modes  of  view  offering  points  of  attachment 
with  which,  as  thought  developed,  lower  views  of  the  Logos 
might  connect  themselves.  But  it  is  to  be  remembered 
always  that  Justin  himself  unequivocally  affirmed  the  com- 
plete divinity  of  the  higher  nature  of  Christ,  and  in  par- 
ticular that  the  Father  begat  Him  ef  eavrov,  out  of  Himself, 
not,  as  the  creatures,  out  of  nothing,  e'f  ovk  ovtcov.  He 
adjusts  his  scheme  by  accepting  the  incongruous  thought 
that  a  personality  in  Godhead  emerges ;  it  is  an  event 
which  takes  place  with  a  view  to  the  other  event  of 
creation.  But  this  incongruity  (which  lay  near  at  hand, 
since  the  Word  is  "  of  God  ")  must  not  lead  us  to  suppose 
that  Justin  hesitated  in  his  main  thought.  For  him  the 
Logos  belongs  to  the  sphere  of  the  Creator,  not  to  that  of 


180-313]  CHRIST   AND    GOD  206 

the  creature.^  So  much  has  been  said  of  Justin,  because 
the  scheme  which  he  exhibits  is  upon  the  whole  that  of  a 
school  of  early  writers.  Something  distinctive  can  be 
ascribeci  to  each  of  them, — to  Athenagoras,  Theophilus  of 
Antioch,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  even  Hippolytus.  But 
these  are  shades  of  thought  and  language  which  belong  to 
the  special  history.  These  writers  all  are  busy  with  the 
problem  which  occupied  Justin.  They  all,  like  him,  avail 
themselves  of  creation  as  the  function  by  which  the  Logos 
is  identified ;  this  aspect  of  things  controls  their  thinking ; 
and  hence  the  eternity  which  they  ascribe  to  the  divine 
wisdom  does  not  for  them  attach  to  the  Logos  as  a  divine 
personaKty.  Some  of  them  attenuate  the  personality  of  the 
Logos.  Some  emphasise  His  subordination  to  the  Father; 
but  the  general  outlook  is  the  same.  They  all  tend  more 
or  less  to  seclude  the  Father  as  such  from  contact  with 
creation  or  creatures,  and  they  sometimes  go  far  to  identify 
the  Logos  with  the  Koaiio^  vo7]t6<;  of  Greek  philosophy. 

The  extreme  to  which  language  can  go,  in  this  direction, 
is  already  indicated  by  Justin  when  he  speaks  of  Christ,  as 
once  or  twice  he  does,  as  a  second  God.^ 

^  The  scheme  of  Philo  is  modified  in  Justin's  thought  by  two  forces.  One 
is  the  personality  of  Christ ;  therefore,  the  Logos  must  be  personal,  and  as 
person  distinct  from  the  Father ;  the  other  is  the  Old  Testament  view  of 
creation  as  begin  nirig;  therefore  the  Logos  finds  His  function  beginning,  and 
as  a  person  then  Himself  begins. 

^  The  eS"ort  of  Bishop  Bull  to  eflface  the  variations  from  Nicene  orthodoxy 
on  the  part  of  those  earlier  Fathers  fails,  because  he  interprets  their  language 
by  distinctions  which  cannot  be  shown  to  have  been  present  to  their  minds. 

To  conceive  a  Divine  Person  originating  as  an  event  with  a  view  to  some- 
thing else ;  and,  again,  to  assert  His  Divinity  and  yet  regard  Him  as  a  pre- 
paratory approach  to  creation  ;  were  ideas  which  might  hover  in  the  Church's 
mind  for  a  time,  but  which  were  sure  eventually  to  create  a  crisis  for  a  num])er 
of  persons.  When  that  crisis  came  men  might  emerge  from  it  in  one  of  two 
ways.  On  one  side  they  might  say,  '*  We  cannot  accept  such  internal  changes 
in  Godhead, — yet  we  abide  by  the  faith  that  Christ  is  God, — only,  not  as  a 
distinct  person.  He  embodies  not  a  distinct  person,  but  a  distinct  mode  of 
the  Divine  activity  ac?  ea;^ra."  And  we  can  imagine  such  a  person  to  say  to 
Justin  Martyr:  "You  yourself  identify  Him  who  appeared  as  Jesus  Christ 
with  the  eternal  reason  and  wisdom  of  the  Father.  But  the  eternal  reason  is 
not  SLiiother  jyerson  with  the  Father  ;  it  is  the  Father  Himself  contemplated  in 
one  aspect.     And  why  speak  of  this  reason  or  wisdom  being  evolved  at  some 


206       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       U.D. 

Irenseus  on  this,  as  on  other  subjects,  keeps  free  from 
extremes,  and  represents  the  main  current  of  the  Church's 
thinking.  He  freely  employs  the  conception  of  the  Logos 
(rendered  both  as  verhum  and  mens)  in  explaining  the 
Christian  view  of  Christ.  He  therefore  recognises  the 
relation  of  Christ  to  creation.  But  he  intimates  that  this 
does  not  exhaust  the  significance  of  the  Logos ;  ^  also,  the 
question  as  to  the  beginning  of  the  personal  Logos  is  averted 
.by  declining  to  ascribe  a  beginning  to  the  process  of  His 
forthcoming.^  In  these  points  Irenaeus  anticipates  the 
positions  permanently  occupied  by  the  orthodox  Church,  a 
remark  which  holds  also  of  his  way  of  conceiving  the 
incarnation.     Naturally  he  has  much  in  common  with  other 

crisis  into  personality?  Is  it  not  enough  to  say  that  both  in  the  creation  cf 
the  world,  and  also  in  the  person  of  the  Redeemer,  God  in  a  certain  mode  of 
divine  manifestation  is  set  before  us  to  contemplate  ?  So  we  hold  the  one  God 
and  the  Divine  Incarnation."  This  was  the  view  represented  in  various  forms 
by  Patripassians,  Sabellians,  and,  perhaps,  by  some  forms  of  dynamical  Mon- 
archianism.  On  the  other  side  men  might  say :  "We  also  can  admit  no  such 
intrinsic  changes  in  God  ;  but  we  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  Christ 
is  not  the  Father  ;  He  is  one  who  is  of  and  from  the  Father.  The  only  reason- 
able course,  therefore,  is  to  admit  that  He  is  not  truly  within  the  sphere  of 
Godhead.  However  great,  since  He  is  of  the  Father  and  sent  by  the  Father, 
He  is  not  the  Father,  and  therefore  He  is  not  that  one  God.  He  can  only  be 
a  wonderful  effect  of  God's  power."  And  such  a  person  might  say  to  Justin: 
**  Do  not  you  yourself  speak  of  Him  as  begotten  with  a  view  to  creation  ? 
Surely  that  assigns  to  Him  a  beginning,  and  a  position  limited  to  time  and  to 
created  things.  Surely  He  was  not  before  He  was  begotten.  You  say  He  pre- 
existed as  the  Father's  eternal  wisdom.  But  surely  the  wisdom  was  not  a 
distinct  person ;  for  then  there  had  been  no  need  of  begetting :  but  if  there 
was  a  begetting,  He  was  not  before  He  was  begotten ;  and  when  He  was,  He 
could  not  be  of  the  Father's  essence,  but  i^  ovk  dvrcov.  You  cannot  reasonably 
mean  more  than  this, — that  with  a  view  to  creation  thsre  was  summoned  into 
existence  one  so  stamped  with  the  likeness  and  filled  with  the  wisdom  of  God, 
that  He  is  eminently  His  Son,  and  in  relation  to  all  the  works  committed  to 
Him  He  is  the  manifested  Wisdom  of  God."  This  was  Arianism.  The  one 
way  of  it  sacrificed  the  personality,  the  other  the  Divinity.  Each  might 
attach  itself  to  one  side  of  Justin's  thinking.  He  meanwhile  was  neither  a 
Sabellian  nor  an  Arian,  but  was  trying  to  hold  the  divine  personality  of  the 
"Word  considered  as  of  and  from  the  Father. 

1  iv.  14.  1.     Before  Adam,  before  the  creation,  He  glorified  the  Father,  and 
was  by  the  Father  glorified. 

2  He  has  no  beginning  of  being  brought  forth.     Cited  by  Dorner,  i.  474 ; 
see  also  Iren.  ii.  13.  8. 


180-313]  CHRIST   AND   GOD  207 

writers  of  his  age ;  but  his  distinction  is  that  in  discoursing 
on  these  arduous  topics  he  never  really  sacrifices  either  the 
personality  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  essential  Deity  of  the 
Son  on  the  other. 

Tertullian,  a  richer  but  a  less  tranquil  thinker,  does  not 
follow  Irenseus  here.  He  takes  his  place  in  the  line  of 
thinkers  who  followed  Justin,  but  with  peculiarities  of  his 
own.  It  should  be  remarked,  however,  that  at  the  time  that 
his  writings  appeared  in  the  West,  and  those  of  Origen  in  the 
East,  a  powerful  reaction  against  the  prevailing  teaching  had 
begun  to  show  itself,  and  the  vigorous  logic  of  Tertullian  is 
animated  by  the  sense  of  conflict.  This  reaction  will  be 
described  presently,  but  it  is  more  convenient  to  postpone 
notice  of  it  till  the  teaching  of  Tertullian  and  of  Origen  has 
been  reported. 

Tertullian,  like  others,  explains  the  relation  of  the  Word 
to  the  Father  by  postulating  an  emergence — a  coming  forth 
into  subsistence — of  a  divine  Personality.  This  takes  place 
with  a  view  to  the  creation  of  the  world,  and  also  with  a  view 
to  its  redemption.  But  according  to  Tertullian  three  stages 
are  to  be  distinguished  in  the  development  of  the  Logos. 
There  is,  first,  an  eternal  quality  or  capacity  in  God,  which 
is,  as  it  were,  the  preparation  for  a  second  Person.  Second, 
there  is  a  forthcoming  to  create,  to  constitute  the  universe. 
This  is  the  generation  of  the  Son ;  but  the  personality  is  not 
yet  so  distinct  or  full  as  it  might  be.  Thirdly,  there  is  the 
incarnation.  In  this  the  full  personal  manifestation  takes 
being :  the  hypostasis,  if  we  may  say  so,  is  completely  extri- 
cated. In  this  connection  Tertullian  could,  to  use  Bull's 
phrase,  "  Dare  to  say  that  there  was  a  time  when  the  Son  of 
God  was  not."  For  he  applies  the  word  "son"  to  denote 
the  Logos,  as  completely  distinguished  and  hypostatised. 
This  took  place  when  Godhead  came  forth  into  manifestation. 
Then  was  the  generation  of  the  Son;  but  before  then  the 
Word  or  Wisdom  was ;  which  in  a  sense  is  identical  with 
the  Son,  but  was  not  yet  the  Son,  because  not  yet  subsisting 
as  a  personality.  For  Tertullian,  therefore,  the  Logos  is  no 
creature ;  He  is  truly  and  wholly  divine :  and  the  eventual 


208       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

distinctness  of  His  personality  is  carefully  secured,  which  for 
Tertullian  was  an  important  matter.^ 

Tertullian  unquestionably  maintained  the  true  divinity 
of  the  Logos.  Yet  as  He  takes  subsistence  by  a  change  in 
Grodhead,  and  as  His  personality  at  least  is  essentially 
implicated  in  creation,  the  question  was  sure  to  be  pressed 
whether  some  Monarchian  theory  were  not  more  reasonable. 

Tertullian 's  theories  are  crude,  drawn  in  strong  lines, 
and  modelled  on  material  analogies.  Origen  draws  out  the 
Logos  doctrine  into  a  speculation  in  which  the  transitions 
are  gentle,  provisional,  and  fleeting,  and  every  element  slides 
into  the  next  without  a  jar.  The  scope  of  Origen's 
theological  system  is  sketched,  so  far,  in  an  earlier  chapter,^ 
and  we  shall  avoid  repetition.  But  his  theory  of  the  Logos 
occupies  a  specially  important  place  in  the  history  on  several 
accounts.  In  reference  to  its  orthodoxy  as  compared  with 
the  Nicene  standard,  it  has  been  bitterly  attacked  and  keenly 
defended.  And  it  certainly  exerted  great  influence  for  a 
time.  It  disposed  men  to  affirm  the  distinct  personality  of 
the  Logos,  in  connection  with  a  certain  subordination ;  but 
what  that  subordination  really  meant  or  really  implied  might 
be  doubted.  In  some  ways  faith  in  the  divine  and  uncreated 
nature  of  the  Son  of  God  was  strengthened ;  for  the  Word 
of  God,  who  was  also  the  Son  of  God,  appeared  in  Origen's 
teaching  as  eternally  begotten  of  the  Father,  as  the  co- 
eternal  progeny  of  that  eternal  mind.  This  conviction  was 
retained  by  many  who  dropped  as  an  eccentricity  Origen's 

1  The  theological  grounds  on  which  Tertullian  argued  are  not  for  this 
place ;  but  it  is  worth  observing  that  his  three  stages  represent  a  natural 
order  of  impressions.  It  was  accepted  teaching  that  in  thinking  of  the  Logos 
we  begin  with  the  eternal  divine  wisdom  ;  but  antecedent  to  the  existence 
of  creatures  there  may  seem  to  be  nothing  to  suggest  that  this  wisdom  is 
personal.  It  is  a  phase  of  the  divine  existence.  When  an  ordered  universe 
cornea  in  sight  with  its  tokens  of  pervading  mind,  something  seems  to  have 
separated  itself  for  our  contemplation,  but  it  seems  hardly  yet  to  have  con- 
centrated itself  into  personality:  it  is  not  quite  a  person, — rather  a  presence 
and  a  potency.  Still,  as  it  originates  creature  existence  and  sustains  it,  it 
must  be  personal  so  far.  But  when  Jesus  Christ  comes  before  us,  in  whom  all 
treasures  of  wisdom  are  hid,  now  personality  is  rounded  and  complete, 

*  Ante,  Chap.  X. 


.180-313]  CHRIST   AND   GOD  209 

speculation  as  to  creation  also  having  no  beginning.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Logos,  while  sometimes  spoken  of  as 
possessing  the  fulness  of  Godhead,  so  that  all  divine  attributes 
are  His,  seems  at  other  times  to  be  contrasted  with  the 
Father,  in  Origen's  thinking,  in  ways  that  suggest  a  lower 
nature  with  lower  qualities  and  significant  limitations.  For 
us,  indeed,  looking  upwards,  Origen  seems  to  say,  Christ 
comes  no  way  short  of  the  Father's  glory;  but  in  His 
own  knowledge  and  in  the  Father's  that  is  far  from  being 
simply  so.  At  the  same  time,  one  remembers  that  for 
Origen,  limitation,  in  this  direction  or  that,  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  true  Deity;  indeed,  the  Father  Himself,  in 
Origen's  view,  has  His  limitations.  On  the  whole,  Origen 
was  felt  to  affirm  the  divine  peculiarity  of  the  Logos ;  and 
yet  not  without  some  qualification.  For  in  some  minds 
the  idea  of  the  Logos  fluctuated  between  distinct  personality 
and  impersonal  influence  or  agency;  in  others  it  fluctuated 
between  true  divinity  and  a  sublime  form  of  creaturehood ; 
and  Origen,  with  his  skill  in  suggesting  connections,  might 
seem  now  to  reach  out  a  hand  in  the  one  direction  and  now 
in  the  other.  But  on  the  whole  he  was  understood  to  assert 
the  true  divinity,  if  you  make  room  for  the  possibility  of 
forms  of  divine  existence  that  exist  with  limitations.  One 
line  drawn  by  Origen  is,  perhaps,  decisive  as  to  his  intention 
at  least.  He  holds  the  divine  nature  to  be  immutably  good, 
while  the  creatures  are  essentially  mutable.  Now  this 
immutable  goodness  which,  though  free,  is  inaccessible  to 
any  taint  of  evil,  is  ascribed  by  Origen  to  the  Son  and  to 
the  Spirit,  as  well  as  to  the  Father, 

Tertullian  and  Origen,  writing  each  in  the  third 
century,  both  refer  to  uneasiness  existing  in  Christian 
minds  with  reference  to  the  line  of  explanation  which  in 
various  forms  has  been  before  us ;  and  this  uneasiness 
showed  itself  in  persons  whom  they  did  not  regard  as 
heretically  disposed.^     This  mood  must  have  existed,  more 

*  Origen  tells  us  of  some  who  "when  they  heard  the  divinity  of  Christ 
dwelt  upon  were  troubled,  though  they  desired  to  be  religious,  fearing  that  it 
was  the  introduction  of  two  gods."    And  Tertullian  reports,  "Those  who  are 

14 


210       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

or  less,  much  earlier  than  these  writers.  The  remark  of 
Justin  Martyr  as  to  some  in  his  time  who  held  lower 
views  of  Christ  has  been  quoted.^  Already  in  the  second 
century  distinct  forms  of  Monarchian  opinion  had  begun  to 
be  put  forward;  and  this  line  of  discussion  constituted  the 
main  theological  interest  of  the  third  century. 

Two  classes  of  Monarchian  theories  have  been  dis- 
tinguished. Some  represented  our  Lord  as  primarily  and 
properly  a  human  person,  but  elevated  to  exceptional  place 
and  power,  even  to  an  attributive  Godhead,  by  divine 
influences  which  descended  on  him.  It  was  natural  to  fix 
on  our  Lord's  baptism  as  the  epoch  at  which  the  decisive 
elevation  took  place.  Inasmuch  as  these  Monarchians 
regarded  Christ  as  a  man  potentiated  by  divine  influence, 
modern  writers  often  style  them  dynamical  Monarchians. 
Others  regarded  Christ  as  truly  divine,  but  in  order  to  avert 
personal  distinctions  in  the  Divine  Nature,  they  identified 
Christ  with  the  Father.  In  Christ  they  recognised  a  mode 
of  the  Father's  subsistence  graciously  assumed,  and  in  this 
special  nfwde  of  subsistence,  uniting  Himself  to  our  flesh, 
He  is  the  Son.  These,  therefore,  are  called  modalistic 
Monarchians.  Perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  the  latter 
opinion  represented  the  impression  naturally  enough 
formed  in  Christian  minds,  not  concerned  in  speculations 
about  creation,  but  mainly  occupied  with  the  two  thoughts 
of  (1)  the  one  God,  and  (2)  the  Divine  Saviour.  Down  to 
the  incarnation  they  thought  of  the  one  God  of  the  Old 
Testament.  At  the  incarnation  something  new  certainly 
appears  upon  the  scene;  but  this  something  new  is  the 
manhood  which  makes  a  quasi-personal  impression  on  our 
minds,  yet  is  not  truly  a  distinct  person. 

In  the  case  of  both  forms  of  Monarchianism  the 
desire  to  safeguard  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Unity,  and 

simple,  not  to  say  those  who  are  thoughtless  and  unenlightened,  who  are 
always  the  greater  portion  of  believers,  knowing  that  the  very  confession  of 
their  faith  implies  that  they  have  passed  from  the  many  gods  of  the  Gentiles 
to  the  only  and  true  God,  tremble  at  the  oUovo/da  (manifestations  of  divine 
persons).  We  hold,  say  they,  the  Monarchy." 
1  Ante,  p.  199. 


180-313]  CHRIST   AND   GOD  211 

to  avert  difficulties  in  regard  to  it,  acted  as  a  disposing 
force. 

Another  motive  is  also  to  be  kept  in  view,  connected 
with  the  manner  of  thought  of  dynamical  Monarchianism 
especially.  There  have  always  been  in  the  Church 
tendencies  to  make  much  of  the  superhuman,  the  divine  in 
Christ,  even  at  the  risk  of  sacrificing  or  suppressing  the 
human  aspect.  But  there  have  been  always  also  tendencies 
to  make  much  of  the  human,  at  the  cost  of  losing  sight 
of  the  divine,  or  of  denying  it.  A  tendency  this  way  has 
its  own  rights.  It  is  connected  with  the  sentiment  of 
attraction  to  Christ  as  our  model,  our  example,  our  leader, 
the  man  in  sympathy  with  men,  the  Captain  of  salvation. 
It  can  also  own  Christ  as  our  representative.  It  is  occupied 
with  the  ethical  aspects  of  salvation;  with  the  thought 
of  the  aim,  the  effort,  and  the  achievements  of  moral  life ; 
and  it  dwells  on  Christ  as  the  centre  of  all  this.  This 
side  of  things  was  too  genuinely  Christian  to  be  absorbed 
by  a  sect.  But  as  the  Church  theology,  in  its  anxiety 
to  understand  and  guard  the  higher  nature  in  Christ, 
undoubtedly  leant  in  the  opposite  direction,  i.e.  to  over- 
shadowing and  limiting  the  human,  the  tendency  we  speak 
of  threw  its  force  into  various  forms  of  protest,  often 
extreme.  It  proved  apt  to  be  not  only  Monarchian,  but 
Nestorian,  Pelagian,  Adoptianist, — and  probably  its  influence 
is  recognised  in  Paulicians,  Bogomiles,  Cathari  among  the 
mediaeval  sects,  not  to  speak  of  more  modern  exemplifica- 
tions. Some  considerations  seem  to  point  to  the  Syrian 
church  as  the  region  in  which  Christian  theology  was  most 
liable  to  be  swayed  in  this  direction. 

While  we  might  on  these  accounts  be  prepared  to  meet, 
without  surprise,  considerable  symptoms  of  the  influence  of  the 
lower  or  dynamistic  Monarchianism,  it  must  be  owned  that  the 
actual  symptoms  are  scanty.  Three  persons  are  named  ;  and 
nothing  indicates  much  influence  as  exerted  by  any  of  them. 

Certain  Alogi  appeared  in  Asia  Minor  as  opponents  of 
Montanism,  and  are  said  to  have  rejected  the  writings 
ftscribed    to    the   Apostle  John, — perhaps    also  the  whole 


212       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

Logos  doctrine.  But  we  do  not  know  their  opinions 
exactly.  Dynamical  Monarchianism  appears  as  intelligible 
theory  in  connection  with  the  two  Theodoti  (cr/cureu?, 
apyvpofiot^6<;)  and  Artemon.  According  to  them,  Jesus  is, 
physically,  a  man  only.  But  his  birth  was  supernatural 
(apparently  this  was  acknowledged),  and  he  became  the 
bearer  or  vehicle  of  divine  power  in  an  extraordinary 
degree.  He  lived  a  life  of  steadfast  righteousness,  and 
was  enabled  to  reflect  the  divine  likeness,  and  convey  the 
divine  message,  with  consummate  fidelity  and  completeness. 
Thus  Jesus  attained  to  a  divine  Sonship ;  and  our  adoption 
takes  place  on  the  model  of  his.  Accepting  the  received 
New  Testament  Canon,  they  had  to  explain  what  is  said  of 
the  Logos  by  the  Apostle  John.  Apparently  they  denied 
any  Logos  eVuTroo-raTo?,  i.e.  as  a  true  personality.  The 
Logos  is  the  revelation  of  the  Father,  i.e.  He  is  the  Father 
in  the  aspects  in  which  He  sees  fit  at  any  time  to  reveal 
Himself.  Christ,  then,  more  eminently  than  any  other  of 
the  elect,  but  substantially  in  the  same  way,  bears  the 
image  of  the  Father.  The  Logos  may  be  said  to  have 
become  man  from  age  to  age,  less  perfectly  in  the  prophets, 
more  perfectly  in  Christ ;  in  both  cases  by  representation, 
not  by  personal  incarnation.  Harnack  has  proposed  to  call 
this  tendency  Adoptianism,  because  its  characteristic  is  to 
assume  an  individual  man,  Jesus,  who  is  taken  into  Sonship, 
and  is  in  a  manner  deified.^  The  details  of  this  teaching  may 
have  varied  in  different  circles  ;  but  probably  most  of  them 
made  much  of  our  Lord's  baptism.  The  descent  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  upon  him  was,  for  them,  the  decisive  event,  the 
era  of  that  connection  with  divine  power  which  rendered 
the  man  Christ  unique.  In  this  way  the  Spirit's  presence 
with  Christ  would  be  considered  as  an  impersonal  divine 
influence.  But  there  were  some  whose  theory  appears  to 
have  differed  from  this  in  an  interesting  way.  They  regarded 
the  Holy  Spirit  as  having  a  personal  character,  and  as  being 

*  See  below  as  to  Paul  of  Samosata.  Adoptianism  has  long  been  the 
accepted  designation  of  a  theory  which  emerged  in  Spain  in  the  time  of 
Charlemagne, 


180-313]  CHRIST   AND   GOD  213 

the  Son  of  the  Father  in  the  true  and  highest  sense.  Then, 
at  the  baptism,  this  Person  descends  in  a  special  manner  on 
the  man  Jesus.  The  precise  nature  and  effects  ascribed  to 
this  union  are  obscure.  But  Jesus  became  qualified,  in 
consequence  of  it,  to  be  our  Master,  and  his  manhood 
experienced  at  the  same  time  a  kind  of  divine  elevation 
or  deification.  It  was  a  question  among  some  of  them 
whether  Jesus  as  yet  had  become  God  at  his  baptism,  or 
not  till  after  the  resurrection ;  and  they  are  thus  led  to 
contrast  the  Holy  Spirit  as  true  Son  of  God,  with  the  man 
Jesus  as  adopted  Son.^  With  these  views  were  connected 
some  strange  speculations  about  Melchisedek. 

To  this  type  of  Monarchianism  also  belongs  the  more 
elaborate  scheme  of  Paul  of  Samosata,  who  was  bishop  of 
Antioch  after  the  middle  of  the  third  century.  We  know  a 
little  more  of  his  theory  than  of  those  just  referred  to,  and 
can  see  the  way  and  the  degree  in  which,  beginning  with 
the  manhood,  he  tried  to  fill  out  the  conception  of  Christ  as 
in  some  sense  a  divine  Saviour.  Paul  became  bishop  of 
Antioch  about  260  or  earlier.  At  that  time  Antioch  was 
part  of  the  shortlived  kingdom  of  Palmyra,  under  Zenobia, 
and  by  her  favour  Paul  maintained  his  position  until  272. 
But  before  this  three  successive  synods  had  assembled  in 
reference  to  his  opinions.  Two  were  baffled  by  his  explana- 
tions and  arguments;  the  third,  perhaps  in  268,  excom- 
municated him.  His  style  of  life  and  government  are 
imfavourably  characterised  by  orthodox  writers,  possibly 
under  the  influence  of  prejudice.  He  had  evidently  shaped 
his  doctrine  so  as  to  avail  himself  in  defending  it  of  all  the 
sources  of  strength  which  contemporary  opinion  seemed  to 
offer  to  him.  He  held  it  resolutely,  and  it  bears  the  stamp 
of  a  clear  and  strong  mind. 

Paul  thought  it  necessary  to  bring  a  Logos  doctrine  into 

*  Some  such  view  is  often  ascribed  to  Hernias,  especially  in  Sim.  5,  and 
it  is  natural  enough  so  to  interpret  that  passage.  Yet  allegory,  with  which 
one  has  here  to  do,  lends  itself  readily  to  mistake  ;  and  the  counter  argun)ent 
from  the  general  drift  of  Hermas,  as  presented  by  Bull  and  Dorner,  should  not 
be  lightly  set  aside.     See  also  Zalm,  Hirt  des  Hermas,  p.  245  f. 


214       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

his  form  of  statement.  At  the  same  time  he  was  a  Mon- 
archian, — he  owned  no  personal  distinctions  in  the  Godhead. 
On  the  one  hand,  then,  he  owned  a  Logos  not  only  abiding  in 
God  as  His  Eeason  or  Wisdom,  but  in  a  certain  sense  set 
forth,  begotten,  so  that  the  term  Son  of  God  may  be  applied 
to  it.  But  this  Logos  or  Sophia,  though  in  a  certain  sense 
an  existence,  a  persistent  influence  or  power,  is,  after  all,  no 
more  than  a  power.  It  is  an  impersonal  Logos,  awno- 
o-raro':.  It  never  does  nor  can  come  into  individual  mani- 
festation, but  is  known  only  as  a  power  influencing  one  or 
other  of  God's  creatures.  This  Logos  worked  in  the  pro- 
phets, but  more  eminently  in  Christ,  who  was  supernaturally 
conceived  of  the  Virgin.  Jesus  then  is  from  below  {ivrevOev 
or  Kcircodev)]  the  divine  Logos  works  in  him  from  above 
(aucoOev).  It  is  an  inspiration  which  Christ  receives.  The 
Logos  does  not  take  substantial  or  personal  being  in  Christ, 
— it  is  with  him,  not  personally,  but  as  a  potency  (ovk 
ovcri,(oB(o<;  dWa  Kara  TroLorijTa).  The  position  of  Christ  is 
thus  remarkable  in  various  ways,  but  the  decisive  element 
is  found  in  his  moral  attitude  and  career.  The  only  unity 
that  can  exist  between  two  distinct  beings  is  unity  of  dis- 
position and  will,  and  such  unity  comes  to  pass  through 
love.  This  is  more  valuable  than  any  unity  that  might  be 
constituted  by  nature.  Jesus,  by  the  strength  of  his  love 
and  the  invariableness  of  his  consent  to  God,  has  become 
one  with  Him.  As  Jesus  maintained  this  unity  through  all 
trial  and  conflict,  he  was  endowed  with  power,  and  has 
become  the  Saviour.  At  the  same  time  this  union  to  God 
becomes  indissoluble,  so  that  he  is  now  one  with  Him  in 
will  and  operation.  Therefore  he  has  a  name  that  is  above 
every  name,  has  received  divine  honour,  and  power  to  judge. 
"  He  is  God  from  the  Virgin."  He  pre-existed  in  the  deter- 
mination of  God — not  otherwise.^ 

*  In  Christ,  therefore,  manhood  grows  to  Godhead.  The  following  are 
some  of  the  expressions  used  to  describe  this  doctrine:  i^  avdpiloirov  yeyov^vat 
rbu  Xpiarbv  Qebv — Karwdev  diroTedeibaOai  rbv  Ktjpiov — ijarepov  avrbv  e/c  TrpoKOirijs 
redeoTToiTjadai.  The  affinities  to  Origen's  scheme  and  the  differences  aro 
interesting. 


180-313]  CHRIST  AND   GOD  216 

In  connection  with  this  case  of  Paul,  the  Synod  of 
Antioch  condemned  the  word  ofioovaio^;,  which  was  afterwards 
the  watchword  of  orthodoxy.  It  is  still  a  question  on  what 
ground  they  rejected  it.  Had  Paul  taunted  his  opponents  with 
using  it  in  a  Sabellian  sense  ?  or  did  Paul  himself  use  it  in 
application  to  his  non-personal  Logos,  and  was  it  regarded 
by  the  bishops  as  virtually  denpng  the  distinct  personality  ? 

We  have  still  to  refer  to  the  modalistic  Monarchians. 
They  held  that  the  Father  Himself  had  taken  flesh  and 
become  incarnate.  Such  was  Noetus  of  Smyrna,  before  the 
end  of  the  second  century.  He  taught  that  Christ  is  Him- 
self the  almighty  God  and  Father,  and  that  the  Father  Him- 
self, therefore,  has  been  born  and  died  in  the  flesh.  Such 
also  was  Praxeas,  who  appeared  in  Eome  in  the  time  of  the 
bishop  Victor.  He  came  from  the  East,  where  he  had  been 
in  collision  with  Montanism.^  Victor  of  Eome  is  said  to 
have  leant  for  a  time  to  the  opinions  of  Praxeas  about  the 
person  of  Christ,  as  he  undoubtedly  was  influenced  by  him 
against  Montanism;  and,  if  Hippolytus  may  be  believed,^ 
the  bishops  Zephyrinus  and  Callistus,  who  succeeded,  aiiso 
betrayed  Monarchian  leanings.  But  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  Logos  doctrine  was  held  by  Hippolytus  in  a  form 
which  might  dispose  him  to  be  a  somewhat  prejudiced  judge 
of  their  phraseology. 

On  this  scheme  the  pre-existence  of  the  Son  of  God  is 
denied,  because  its  advocates  confined  the  term  Son  to  God 
as  incarnate,  as  appearing  in  the  flesh.  As  incarnate  He  is 
or  becomes  the  Son ;  in  His  primeval  glory  and  Godhead 
He  could  not  suffer,  but  He  suffered  in  or  with  the  Son ; 
hence  the  name  Patripassian.  This  theory  proposed  to  start 
from  a  high  view  of  the  simplicity  and  peculiarity  of  the 
Divine  Nature.  But  it  lay  open  to  an  obvious  difficulty. 
There  is  no  denying  that,  according  to  the  Gospels,  Christ 
deals  with  and  speaks  to  His  Father,  as  person  with  person, 

*  Hence  Tertullian,  to  whom  his  Antimontanism  and  his  Monarchianiam 
were  alike  distasteful,  said  of  him  that  he  drove  away  the  Paraclete  and  cruci- 
fied  the  Father. 

*  £e/ut,  ix. 


216       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       lA.i>. 

as  one  with  another.  How  is  this  to  be  accounted  for 
in  harmony  with  the  theory  ?  Either  the  Gospels  use  a 
deceptive  way  of  representing  things,  depicting  earnest 
dealings  between  two,  when  really  it  is  one,  in  the  most 
absolute  personal  simplicity,  who  acts  both  the  parts.  Or, 
there  has  really  emerged,  at  the  incarnation,  a  new  person- 
ality— another  with  the  Father.  If  so,  how  ?  Either  there 
has  at  last  emerged  in  the  Divine  Nature  a  duality,  a 
new  personal  centre,  so  that  in  Godhead  one  is  set  over 
against  another, — but  this  is  inconsistent  with  the  original 
motive  of  the  scheme ;  or,  the  new  personality  must  turn 
on  the  humanity ;  it  is  the  man  who  is  the  new  or  distinct 
person ;  the  human  nature  must  bear  the  weight  of  that. 
In  this  case  it  cannot  but  seem  simpler  to  say,  with  the 
dynamical  Monarchians,  that  the  man  is  personally  distinct 
from  the  Father — that  is  to  say,  from  God ;  and  that  the 
divine  influence  which  he  may  have  experienced,  whatever 
it  was,  must  not  be  conceived  as  an  incarnation  of  the 
Father's  own  person.  One  sees,  therefore,  that  a  road  existed 
by-  which  modalistic  Monarchianism  might  pass  over  to 
the  dynamical  type. 

The  form  of  modalistic  Monarchianism  which  may  be 
said  to  have  endured  in  the  minds  of  men,  as  the  most 
worthy  of  consideration  among  such  theories,  was  Sabellian- 
ism.  According  to  Hippolytus,^  Sabellius  appeared  at  Eome 
early  in  the  third  century,  was  for  a  time  in  close  relations 
and  in  theological  concert  with  Callistus,  but  was  afterwards 
excommunicated  by  that  bishop.  From  other  sources  ^  we 
only  hear  of  Sabellius  at  a  later  period  working  in  the 
Ptolemais  (Egypt).  His  doctrine  was  marked  by  consider- 
able originality  in  several  respects. 

Other  Monarchians  had  occupied  themselves  chiefly  or 
exclusively  with  the  question  of  the  Father  and  the  Son. 
Sabellius  provided  in  his  scheme  a  place  also  for  the  Holy 
Spirit.  He  asserted  a  trinity,  not  of  personal  distinction, 
but  of  successive  manifestation, — God  acts  three  parts,  or 
reveals  Himself  in  three  modes.  The  same  who  is  the 
»  He/ut,  ix.  11.  >  BasU,  £p,  207. 


180-313]  CHRIST  AKD   GOD  21? 

Father,  the  same  is  also  the  Son  (in  this  connection  Sabel- 
lius  used  the  term  vloiraTcop^  and  the  same  is  also  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Either  Sabellius  or  some  of  those  who  shared  his 
views  seem  to  have  had  a  speculation  according  to  which 
God  is,  first  of  all,  a  Unity  unrevealed,  ©eo?  aLcoirwv,  and 
then,  secondly,  reveals  Himself,  and  so  becomes  6eo9  XaX&v 
or  X0709 ;  so  that  Logos  would  not  denote  the  second  person, 
but  would  comprehend  all  the  three  phases — Father,  Son, 
Spirit.^ 

Sabellius,  or  some  of  his  followers,  spread  his  doctrine 
abroad  with  great  success  in  the  Libyan  Pentapolis  after  the 
middle  of  the  third  century,  so  that  Athanasius  says  it  had 
nearly  come  to  pass  that  in  this  church  the  Son  of  God 
should  not  be  proclaimed  at  all.  Hereupon  Dionysius,  bishop 
of  Alexandria,  interposed  with  great  energy ;  and  in  assert- 
ing the  personal  distinction  and  place  of  the  Son,  he  went  so 
far  as  to  declare  the  Son  to  be  a  creature  and  work  of  the 
Father.  But  on  the  interposition  of  the  Eoman  bishop  of 
the  same  name,  who  dwelt  upon  the  unity  of  nature  between 
the  Son  and  the  Father,  the  eternity  of  the  Son,  and  the 
importance  of  distinguishing  generation  from  creation,  the 
Alexandrian  bishop  modified  his  language,  and,  in  particular, 
recognised  the  Romo-ousia  of  the  Son.  But  as  he  had  at 
first  gone  so  far,  the  Arians  at  a  later  period  appealed  to  his 
authority  to  shelter  their  teaching.* 

Obscure  theories  were  put  forward  by  Beron,  whose 
name  is  associated  with  that  of  Noetus,  and  by  Beryllus 
of  Bostra.  Origen  is  said  to  have  convinced  them  of 
their  error.  These  appear  to  have  been  elaborate  attempts 
to  get  over  the  difficulties  which  apply  to  every  form  of 
modalism. 

Of  the  two  forms  of  Monarchianism,  that  which  is  now 

*  This  was  proposed  by  Baur  as  the  true  view  of  Sabellius*  own  specula- 
tion ;  and  his  representation  was  for  a  time  generally  accepted.  But  Zahn,  in 
his  Marcelltis,  followed  by  Harnack,  declines  to  ascribe  to  Sabellius  any  Logos 
speculation  whatever,  or  any  distinction  of  the  Monas  as  resting  behind  the 
Triaa.  Harnack,  Dogmenyesch.  p.  632.  Some  such  Logos  speculation  seems 
to  have  floated  before  Callistus.     Hipp.  Befut.  ix.  12. 

*  Athan.  de  Sent.  Dionyeiiy  Op.  i.  p.  477. 


218       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

called  dynamical  might  seem  more  agreeable  to  common 
sense,  and  less  beset  with  obvious  internal  difficulties.  It 
may  also  have  been  earlier  present  in  the  Church,  and  it 
may  have  continued  longer.  But  as  it  failed  to  assert 
roundly  the  divinity  of  the  Lord,  it  could  not  make  itself 
extensively  acceptable  to  Christians.  The  modalistic  Mon- 
archianism  spread  wider,  and  gave  far  more  trouble.  To 
many  minds,  most  likely,  modalism  came  as  a  way  of  ex- 
pressing old  convictions  and  modes  of  feeling,  which  seemed 
to  be  in  danger.  A  simple  Christian  persuasion  obtained, 
that  one  God  must  be  owned  in  room  of  the  many,  and  yet 
that  Christ  was  both  divine  and  human,  therefore  a  wonder- 
ful Saviour.  Men  knew  Him  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  rested 
there ;  they  wished  to  say  no  more.  They  accepted  what 
the  Apostle  John  said  of  the  Logos,  but  were  not  led  by 
that  into  more  specific  determinations.^  But  during  the 
second  century,  and  as  it  passed  into  the  third,  the  Logos 
doctrine  was  more  extensively  canvassed.  A  distinction 
of  persons,  Father  and  Son,  antecedent  to  the  world  of 
creatures,  was  forcibly  presented  to  the  mind.  We  have 
seen  from  the  testimony  of  Origen  and  Tertullian*  that 
recoil  and  apprehension  were  thus  created  in  Christian 
minds ;  and  Epiphanius  ^  tells  us  that  the  Sabellians  used  to 
say  to  plain,  pious  people :  "  Well,  my  good  friends,  what 
are  we  to  say? — ^Have  we  one  God  or  three?"  with  the 
effect  in  many  cases  of  gaining  them  over.  As  the  sup- 
porters of  the  Logos  doctrine  were  thus  charged  with 
Ditheism  or  Tritheism,  so  they,  with  a  view  to  bring  out  a 
unity  of  authority  and  origination  between  Father  and  Son, 
and  yet  to  mark  a  distinction,  were  prone,  as  we  have  seen, 
to  emphasise  the  subordination  of  the  second  person;  and 
they  had  not  surmounted  the  view  that  the  emergence  of  the 
second  person  is  an  event,  just  preceding  the  creation  of  the 
world.  These  explanations  did  not  avail  to  quiet  the  minds 
that  were  troubled  on  the  subject  of  the  divine  unity ;  and 
they  might  well  seem  unsatisfactory  in  theh'  bearing  on  the 

^  The  modalists  dealt  witli  this  as  somehow  figurative  or  allegoricsaL 
*  Ante,  p.  209,  note.  "  Hcer.  62. 


180-313]  CHRIST   AND    GOD  219 

glory  of  Christ;  since  even  as  to  His  higher  nature,  quali- 
fications and  distinctions  were  multiplying. 

To  some,  also,  it  might  appear  that  modalism  was  the 
more  evangelical  view,  on  this  further  account,  that  it  started 
not  so  much  from  the  thought  of  the  Creator,  but  rather  from 
the  thought  of  the  Saviour.  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
that  we  might  be  saved.  Now  the  representatives  of  the 
Logos  doctrine  seem  first  to  settle  the  rank  of  the  Logos  in 
view  of  a  scheme  of  creation,  or  a  theory  of  the  origin  of 
being;  and  then  the  soteriological  part  is  adjusted  to  that 
as  an  additional  chapter,  or  an  appendix  merely.  It  must 
be  added  that  the  same  writers,  in  developing  their  sub- 
ordinationism,  are  tempted  to  speak  of  the  second  person 
in  a  way  that  might  grate  on  pious  ears.  Dionysius  of 
Alexandria  has  been  alluded  to  already.  Take  also  Hippoly- 
tus.  He  undoubtedly  meant  to  assert  the  true  divinity  of 
the  Logos.  Christ,  he  says,  is  God  over  all.  Yet  elsewhere 
he  gets  into  a  strain  which  allows  a  remark  like  this : 
"  God  did  not  mean  to  make  you  (i.e.  his  reader)  a  God,  but 
a  man.  If  He  had  wished  to  make  you  God,  He  could  have 
done  it, — you  have  the  example  of  the  Logos ;  but  wishing  to 
make  you  man,  a  man  He  made  you.  But  if  you  wish  also 
to  become  God,  be  obedient  to  Him  who  made  you,"  etc. 
It  was  not  unnatural  that  some  should  ask,  "  But  what  sort  of 
divine  nature  is  this  after  all,  that  can  be  spoken  of  so  ? "  ^ 

With  all  these  advantages,  however,  modalistic  Mon- 
archianism  could  not  maintain  itself  as  a  system.  It 
revealed  its  weakness  when  put  in  form.     If  the  see   of 

^  Hipp.  Refut.  X.  The  Logos  theology  at  this  time  was  associated  with 
forms  of  thought,  and  in  some  degree  with  speculations,  borrowed  from  the 
rising  Neo-Platonism.  The  class  of  people  from  which  modalistic  Monarchians 
took  their  rise  may  best  be  conceived  perhaps  as  rather  repelling  philosophy. 
Yet  when  they  came  to  elaborate  a  theory  and  defend  it,  they  give  tokens  of 
affecting  specially  the  ideas  and  the  logic  of  the  Stoics.  And  it  is  curious 
to  note  that  their  opponents  suspect  a  Stoic  notion  of  God  as  at  the  bottom 
of  their  theory,  and  charge  it  upon  them.  They  were  thought  to  go  no  higher 
than  the  Logos  God  of  the  Stoics,  who  pervades  creation,  without  rising  to  the 
Farther  God.  The  dynamical  Monarchians  found  Aristotelianism  suit  them 
best,  and  drew  their  weapons  from  that  armoury.  See  Harnack,  Dogviengesch, 
L  604-5. 


220  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH     [a.d.  180-313 

Rome  temporised,  or  hesitated  on  the  subject  during  two 
or  three  episcopates,  that  could  only  be  a  temporary  hesita- 
tion, and  it  caused  no  serious  division ;  for  ere  long  we  find 
a  resolute  assertion  of  the  Trinity  in  Unity  as  the  doctrine 
of  the  West.i 

As  the  third  century  closed  and  the  fourth  began,  the 
Church  was  still  conscious  of  being  in  presence  of  a  problem 
which  had  proved  arduous.  The  Logos  doctrine — that  is, 
the  doctrine  that  our  Lord  pre-existed  with  the  Father,  as 
His  Word  and  Son — held  the  field;  but  regarding  this, 
also,  different  forms  of  statement  were  possible.  The 
great  influence  of  Origen  recommended  the  doctrine  of  the 
eternal  generation,  but  in  other  respects  favoured  a  pretty 
decided  subordinationism.  The  tendencies  of  thought  ex- 
isting in  the  Church  were  to  be  finally  revealed  in  the 
Arian  controversy. 

^  Dionysius  of  £ome  in  the  case  of  Dionysios  of  Alexandria.  Bouth,  Hel, 
Sac  iu.  373. 


CHAPTER  XII 

Christian  Life 

The  question  how  to  follow  Christ  in  earthly  life  has 
always  been  in  hand;  to  some  Christians  in  every  age  it 
has  been  a  matter  of  supreme  interest.  The  great  pro- 
hibitions of  the  moral  law  in  regard  to  outward  conduct 
have  always  been  asserted.  But  as  Christians  are  called  to 
spiritual  obedience  and  to  a  life  of  spiritual  aspiration,  a 
"  how  much  more  "  comes  into  view ;  and  the  precise  mean- 
ing of  it  for  each  Christian  is  debatable,  though  for  genuine 
Christians  it  is  always  great.  It  is  difficult,  therefore,  to 
report  truly  and  usefully  on  the  Christian  life  of  our  own 
age, — much  more  on  that  of  an  age  far  removed  from 
ours  in  time  and  manners,  and  represented  by  imperfect 
records. 

In  the  period  before  us  the  standard  of  Christian 
manners  becomes  a  subject  of  deliberate  discussion.  It 
occupied  the  thoughts  of  Clement  of  Alexandria  in  the  East 
and  of  Tertullian  in  the  West,  and  both  have  written  largely 
about  it, — Clement  more  systematically.  The  two  men 
were  very  different  in  many  respects:  moreover,  Clement 
was  not  influenced  by  Montanism  as  Tertullian  was,  and 
Tertullian  attempts  no  methodical  exposition  like  that  in 
Clement's  Pcedagogus,  Yet  in  their  way  of  approaching 
the  subject,  and  inculcating  its  lessons,  there  is  less  differ- 
ence than  might  be  expected. 

Both  of  them  are  influenced  by  what  the  New  Testa- 
ment urges  in  reference  to  self-denial  and  in  reference  to 
the  supremacy  of  spiritual  affections,  and  both  wish  to  show 
how  these  principles  are  to  be  carried  out.     In  making  the 

2S1 


222  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

attempt  they  are  guided  by  the  conception  they  have 
formed  of  the  contrast  which  Christian  life  should  offer  to 
that  which  is  worldly.  For  Clement  the  Christian  is  the 
true  Gnostic, — he  rises  above  the  material  and  the  sensuous, 
and  that  recoil  determines  his  Christian  conduct.  Tertul- 
lian*s  principles,  too,  operate  largely  by  recoil ;  in  his  case 
it  is  recoil  from  the  concrete  life  of  his  time,  which  was 
self-indulgent  paganism,  and  his  moral  thinking  has  a  Stoic 
turn.  Neither  of  them,  in  the  main,  attains  to  a  steady 
grasp  of  the  positive  moral  forces  which  make  life  Christian, 
because  they  make  it  participant  in  the  life  of  Christ ;  and 
neither  of  them  attains  a  clear  view  of  the  essential  evil  or 
defect  of  worldly  Hfe.  Hence  a  too  negative  conception  of 
Christian  excellence,  and  too  great  a  disposition  to  multi- 
ply prohibitions  and  rules,  and  to  urge  them  in  a  legal  way. 
Yet  both  of  them  were  honest  Christian  men,  striving  to  be 
loyal  to  a  Master  whom  they  loved. 

What  we  learn  from  the  catacombs  and  from  other 
sources  make  it  clear  that  Christians  were  by  no  means  so 
sparing  in  matter  of  ornament,  for  example,  as  the  writers 
named  exhorted  them  to  be ;  and  art,  which  in  pagan  hands 
was  always  ready  to  overstep  the  limits  of  morality,  took 
service  with  the  Christians,  but  learned  among  them  to  sit 
at  the  feet  of  goodness  as  well  as  of  beauty. 

Christians  could  not  but  set  themselves  against  the 
delight  in  immoral  action  and  immoral  suggestion  which 
was  common  in  paganism,  and  so  they  turned  from  the 
theatres  and  spectacles,  as  well  as  from  whole  classes  of 
pictures  and  statues.  Actors,  and  craftsmen  who  minis- 
tered to  idolatry  had  to  forsake  their  callings  in  order  to 
be  received.  Generally,  Christians  refused  to  sympathise 
with  distinctively  pagan  art,  and  with  all  that  savoured  of 
pagan  beliefs  and  worships.  Yet  here  there  was  a  border- 
land which  must  have  been  debata,ble.  Phrases,  symbols, 
usages,  which  carried  some  touch  of  pagan  meaning,  might 
be  repudiated  or  rejected  by  some  Christians,  while  for 
others  they  passed  as  mere  conventions  which  had  lost  all 
distinctive  religious  significance.     Persons  in  active  business 


180-313]  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  223 

relations  to  the  life  of  the  day  would  admit  a  large  latitude. 
Again,  elements  of  the  current  mythology  could  even  be 
Christianised.  In  the  paintings  in  the  catacombs,  while 
scenes  appear  from  the  Old  Testament,  scenes  also  suggested 
by  our  Lord's  parables,  and  (within  this  period)  perhaps  one 
or  two  instances  of  direct  representation  of  scenes  from  our 
Lord's  life,  myths  like  that  of  Orpheus  are  made  to  yield  a 
sense  which  Christian  artists,  or  Christians  who  employed 
non-Christian  artists,  had  no  scruple  in  appropriating. 

The  practice  of  self-denial  for  its  own  sake  was  regarded 
and  commended  as  eminent  Christian  virtue.  As  embraced 
by  the  Christians  it  applied  to  food  and  raiment;  but  it 
had  a  very  special  application  to  marriage.  The  abuse  of 
the  sexual  relation  had  gone  so  far  in  the  Gentile  world — it 
was  such  a  fertile  source  of  evil,  and  men's  minds  were  so 
habituated  to  accept  that  evil  as  inevitable — that  the  Chris- 
tians felt  it  to  be  their  part  to  recoil  from  it  vehemently. 
Marriage  itself  had  been  debased  by  the  low  tone  of  feeling 
in  regard  to  it.  The  Christians,  on  the  whole,  maintained 
the  legitimacy  of  marriage  as  a  divine  institution,  and  an 
appointed  part  of  the  order  of  the  world;  but  it  was 
habitual  for  those  who  led  sentiment  on  the  point  to  think 
and  speak  of  it  as  a  concession  to  the  weakness  of  human 
nature,  and  as  fixing  life  on  a  level  lower  than  the  highest. 
Hence,  though  marriage  was  always  guarded  against  the 
imputation  of  being  in  itself  evil,  yet  entrance  into  married 
life  could  hardly  be  dissociated,  as  it  seemed,  from  a  cer- 
tain sense  of  inferiority,  and  abstinence  implied  a  superior 
virtue.  Early  in  the  second  century  Christians  who  have 
renounced  marriage  and  have  been  faithful  to  this  purpose 
during  their  lives,  are  spoken  of  and  pointed  to  with  satis- 
faction.^ Second  marriages  were  opposed  by  some  as  wholly 
unlawful  for  Christians ;  and  at  all  events  persons  who,  after 
being  once  married,  and  having  lost  their  partners,  embraced 
henceforth  the  widowed  life,  were  regarded  as  worthy  of 
special  commendations.  So  also  the  dislike  grew  to  bishops 
or  presbyters  marrying  after  ordination.  Many  of  them  were 
I  Justiu  Martyr,  Ap,  L  15 ;  Athenagoras,  Fresb,  6-38. 


224       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

married  when  ordained ;  and  a  disposition  appeared  to  require 
those  who  were  married  to  live  separate  from  their  wives. 
But  the  right  of  married  clergy  to  live  with  their  wives  was 
on  the  whole  upheld  throughout  our  present  period. 

The  ascetics  did  not  withdraw  from  society :  they  lived 
in  their  own  homes,  and  mingled  with  other  people ;  but,  of 
course,  it  was  regarded  as  fitting  that  they  should  avoid 
temptations  which  might  shake  their  purpose.  In  some 
churches,  as  already  noticed  (p.  40),  ascetics  had  a  distinct 
place  in  the  meeting  for  worship.^ 

Perhaps  before  the  end  of  our  period  there  were  cases 
of  ascetics  binding  themselves  by  an  express  permanent  vow. 
At  anyrate,  eventual  marriage,  in  the  case  of  those  who  had 
once  become  ascetics,  could  only  be  regarded  as  a  descent 
from  a  higher  level  to  a  lower ;  but  the  marriage  was  not 
regarded  as  invalid.  The  strange  moods  of  mind  which 
might  arise  in  connection  with  ascetic  life  continued  to  be 
illustrated  by  the  scandal  of  the  arvvelaaKToi,  or  sub- 
introductae,^  against  which  Church  rulers  like  Cyprian 
had  sedulously  to  watch. 

The  prevalent  sentiment  of  the  ancient  Christians  on 
this  subject  it  is  not  easy  to  appreciate  with  perfect  justice. 
Strong  recoil  from  actual  evils  was,  in  the  circumstances, 
healthy  and  right,  and  the  determination  to  give  effect  to 
the  hate  of  evil  at  all  costs  was  magnanimous.  There 
might  be,  as  there  still  are,  excellent  reasons  for  many 
Christians  remaining  unmarried,  if  they  perceive  that  in 
this  way  they  are  likely  to  serve  God  and  man  more  faith- 
fully; and  the  ancient  Christians  who  so  decided  were 
within  their  right,  and  used  their  own  liberty.  There  may 
be  times,  and  there  may  be  classes  of  persons,  in  respect  to 
which  such  practical  decisions  may  become  exceptionally 
important.     But  the  mistake  involved  in  holding  that  the 

*  Hierakas,  near  the  end  of  the  period,  gathers  ascetics  round  him,  whom 
he  leads  and  instructs, — thus  verging  towards  distinctively  monastic  life. 
But  according  to  Epiphanius  he  was  a  heretic,  and  his  followers  a  sect.  Ho  is 
said  to  have  absolutely  condemned  marriage. 

2  Celibate  clergy  had  in  their  houses  women,  often  consecrated  virgins, 
their  relations  with  whom,  professedly  innocent,  were  open  to  great  suspicion. 


180-313]  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  226 

unmarried  state  is  in  itself  better  or  purer  than  the  married 
(which  emphatically  it  is  not),  became  a  source  of  almost 
boundless  evils.  It  perverted  the  principles  on  which  Chris- 
tian conduct  is  to  be  appreciated  by  men,  and  is  measured 
by  God ;  it  ascribed  an  unreal  merit  to  ascetic  life ;  it  fixed 
a  note  of  moral  inferiority  upon  the  state  of  marriage,  and 
so  disgraced  the  sanctities  of  family  life;  it  became  the 
occasion  of  leading  many  persons  into  a  snare  which  ruined 
them.  But  nothing  of  this  was  foreseen  by  almost  any. 
The  ascetic  life  was  regarded  as  an  unmixed  good,  and 
received  not  only  commendation  but  adulation.  The  young 
Church  made  here  an  experiment  which  young  Christians 
often  repeat:  the  experiment  of  seeking  the  victory  over 
evil  in  rules  and  in  severities  of  their  own  devising.  Very 
few,  perhaps,  could  conceive  it  to  be  practicable  to  dissociate 
the  commendation  of  the  "  virgin  life "  from  the  assertion 
of  its  superior  merit.  Finally,  those  who  have  read  the 
exhortations  addressed  by  Church  teachers  to  virgins  are 
aware  of  one  inevitable  element  in  the  situation :  the  minds 
of  those  addressed  were  detained  on  topics  and  questions 
which  could  only  be  unhealthy. 

Marriage  with  pagans  or  Jews,  also  with  heretics, 
was  discountenanced,  and  eventually  prohibited  by  councils.^ 
But  it  could  not  be  regarded  as  invalid;  and  while  such 
marriages  might  be  avoided  by  earnest  Christians,  it  is 
certain  that  they  were  not  uncommon.^  Besides,  there  was 
the  large  class  of  persons  who,  though  having  some  connec- 
tion with  the  Church,  were  not  yet  baptized;  and  their 
conduct  in  this  and  other  matters  could  not  easily  be  con- 
trolled. A  well-known  passage  in  TertuUian  describes  the 
discomfort  and  the  risks  of  such  marriages.*  It  was  expected 
that  Christians  should  marry  with  the  approbation  of  the 
Church,  and  with  a  rite  in  which  the  parties  received  the 
Church's  benediction.  But  this  also  was  not  essential  to 
the  validity  of  the  marriage. 

The  exaggerated  importance  attached  to  the  virgin  life 

'  Illib.  Can.  15 ;  Arel.  Can.  11  ;  Laod.  Can.  10,  31. 

2  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  6.  »  Tert  ad  Uxor,  ii  4 

^5 


226       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

tended,  as  we  have  seen,  to  depress  the  conception  of  the 
Christian  value  of  married  hfe.  On  the  other  hand,  how- 
ever, Christianity  pervaded  the  home  with  influences  and 
with  a  Presence  which  gave  new  sacredness  and  sweetness 
to  all  its  relations.^  Hence,  domestic  life  became  a  new 
thing ;  all  the  more  because  the  strong  faith  of  life  to  come 
gave  worth  and  dignity  to  every  member  of  the  Christian 
family.  The  family  became  the  school  in  which  the  Chris- 
tian order  of  life  was  enjoined  and  practised ;  and  a  habit 
of  moral  self-command  was  formed  which,  if  it  existed  at 
all  among  the  pagans,  did  not  reach  so  far,  and  in  most 
cases  was  much  more  feeble.  Even  the  family  life  of  less 
careful  Christians  was  reached  and  influenced  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  what  the  common  sentiment  demanded,  and  by 
the  discipline  of  the  congregation. 

Brotherly  kindness  and  liberality  to  the  poor  were  con- 
spicuous features  of  Christian  life.  As  far  as  we  know,  every 
Christian  church  cared  for  its  poorer  members ;  ^  and  in  times 
of  persecution,  ministration  to  sufferers  was  zealously  pursued. 
Captives  were  ransomed.  Kindness  to  the  poor  generally 
(not  merely  to  those  who  were  Christians)  was  also  com- 
mended and  cherished,  and  came  out  sometimes  remarkably 
in  times  of  pestilence,  such  as  those  which  darkened  the 
third  century.  This  virtue  also  had  its  theological  support 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  efficacy  of  almsgiving  to  take  away 
sins.  Texts  in  the  apocryphal  books  of  the  Old  Testament 
supported  that  doctrine;  and  in  this  way  those  Christians 
might  be  persuaded  to  give  who  were  conscious  of  a  good 
deal  of  sin  that  required  to  be  put  away.  The  difficulty  of 
bestowing  charity  so  as  really  to  benefit  the  receivers  had 
not  been  apprehended,  and  all  seemed  to  be  gained  if  purse- 
strings  could  be  opened.  The  result  on  the  whole  must 
have  been  to  promote  the  sense  of  brotherhood,  and  to 
establish  in  the  general  mind  the  claims  of  the  weak  and 

^  Tert.  ad  Uxor.  ii.  8. 

2  In  the  middle  of  tlie  third  century  the  church  of  Rome  had  1500  widows 
and  poor  persons  on  its  lists,  and  it  contributed  liberally  to  aid  churches  ip 
distress. 


180-313]  CHRISTIAN    LIFE  227 

helpless  classes.  In  addition,  the  process  of  spending  money 
unselfishly  reacted  beneficially  on  the  rich.  Unquestionably 
the  Christian  Church  brought  home  to  the  richer  classes  the 
feeling  of  stewardship,  and  of  accountability  for  the  use  of 
property,  in  a  manner  previously  unexampled.  And  the 
poverty  of  our  Lord,  as  also  His  compassion  for  the  poor, 
were  incessantly  appealed  to  as  irresistible  arguments. 

The  relation  of  Christianity  to  a  heathen  state,  whose 
functionaries  were  in  direct  contact  with  popular  licence  as 
well  as  popular  worship,  naturally  led  Christians  to  avoid 
public  office.  This  was  part  of  the  foundation  for  charging 
them  with  at  least  passive  disloyalty ;  and  the  same  charge 
had  also  a  further  ground  in  the  Christian  hope  that  the 
whole  existing  order  of  things  would  soon  be  superseded. 
Christians,  however,  conscientiously  obeyed  existing  author- 
ities when  they  could  do  so  without  sin:  otherwise,  they 
suffered  submissively ;  and  they  prayed  regularly  for  their 
rulers  and  for  the  public  peace.  They  did  avoid  public  em- 
ployment, especially  posts  in  which  they  came  into  official 
contact  with  idolatry,  or  might  have  to  pass  sentence  of  death. 
But  here,  as  in  other  matters,  no  absolute  rule  could  be 
carried  through ;  and  as  the  third  century  advanced,  the 
number  of  Christians  increased  who  found  reason  for  accept- 
ing public  responsibilities,  sometimes  to  the  detriment  of 
their  religion.  It  could  not  be  easy  to  be  a  Christian  in 
the  army,  and  the  Christian  feeling  deprecated  entering  a 
calling  in  which  a  man's  business  was  to  fight  and  kill. 
Yet  it  is  quite  evident  that  there  were  Christian  soldiers, 
some  of  them  prepared  to  suffer  for  their  faith ;  ^  and  when 
Diocletian  began  to  take  measures  against  the  Christians, 
the  discharge  of  Christian  soldiers  from  the  ranks  of  the 
legions  was  one  of  the  earliest  steps. 

The  exercise  of  good  works  was  supported  by  the  wide- 
spread doctrine  of  merit,  and  the  grosser  sins  were  dis- 
couraged by  the  Church's  system  of  discipline.  As  regards 
the  former,  asceticism  and  almsgiving  were  the  popular 
fonn  of  virtue  to  which  the  doctrine  of  merit  was  most 
^  Tertullian's  treatise,  de  Corona,  itself  implies  it. 


228  THE    ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH     [a.d.  180-313 

emphatically  applied.  The  virtue  to  efface  sin  and  to 
secure  heaven  was  ascribed  to  good  works  in  a  strict  legal 
way,  so  as  to  suggest  that  once  a  man  was  baptized,  and 
had  cleared  old  scores,  he  had  to  work  out  the  balance  of 
his  merits  and  demerits  as  best  he  could.  Cyprian  perhaps 
goes  furthest  in  this  direction.^  Sins  before  baptism  are 
purged  by  Christ's  blood;  but  as  the  laver  of  baptism 
quenches  hell  fire,  so  by  alms  and  good  works  the  flame 
of  their  faults  is  abated  for  justified  men.  Prayers  and 
fasts  cannot  purge  away  sins,  but  alms  can :  God  is 
satisfied  by  righteous  works,  and  by  the  merit  of  merciful- 
ness sins  are  purged.  This  is,  in  fact,  the  method  by  which 
post-baptismal  sins,  that  do  not  require  formal  discipline,  are 
remitted.  Only  it  must  not  be  thought  that  other  motives 
for  good  works  did  not  exert  their  influence  along  with 
these.  ! 

In  the  language  of  Christian  oratory,  those  who  live 
meritoriously  in  peaceful  times  will  receive  from  the  Lord 
a  white  crown,  those  who  suffer  for  Him  will  have  the 
higher  honour  of  a  purple  one.^  Or,  using  another  illus- 
tration, ordinary  Christians  who  live  well  are  those  who 
bring  forth  thirtyfold,  ascetics  answer  to  those  who  bring 
forth  sixtyfold,  martyrs  to  those  who  bring  forth  a  hundred- 
fold. 

It  will  be  seen  that  a  somewhat  external  way  of  appre- 
ciating character  and  weighing  merits  prevailed. 

The  Christians  were  aware  that  the  disposition  and  the 
motive  are  the  decisive  elements  in  true  service  of  God; 
yet  the  external  distinctions  drew  the  eye,  and  were  treated 
as  decisive.  When  this  is  the  case  a  double  morality  in- 
evitably arises.  A  low  and  rather  negative  Christianity,  along 
with  church  standing,  can  prove  a  pathway  to  heaven.  A 
more  heroic  and  self-forgetting  style  of  service  and  endur- 
ance is  owned  to  be,  after  all,  the  true  ideal ;  but  it  is  not 
imperative.  Only,  those  who  select  and  adopt  it  will  earA 
an  exceptional  reward. 

1  Cyp.  de  0^.  et  El.  1-5.  *  Cyp.  ibid.  26.^ 


CHAPTER   XIII 

Worship 

Very  interesting  changes  and  developments  took  place 
before  the  end  of  the  present  period.  They  were  certainly 
not  due  to  previous  consultation,  and  must  therefore  have 
suggested  themselves  locally.  Yet  while  dififerences  on  some 
points  continued  to  exist,  a  very  considerable  agreement  in 
practice  over  the  Church  obtained  in  the  end.  With  respect 
to  the  differences,  two  moods  of  mind  are  visible.  Some 
defended  the  right  of  churches  to  differ  on  minor  points; 
while  some,  without  precisely  denying  that,  were  impatient 
of  differences,  and  aimed  at  uniformity.  In  all  such  matters 
the  practice  of  a  few  of  the  greater  churches  must  have 
exerted  much  influence. 

In  Justin  Martyr's  account  of  Christian  worship,  one 
recognises  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  preaching  more  or  less 
formal,  prayer,  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  This  already  indi- 
cates one  considerable  change.  He  says  nothing  of  the 
Agape,  nor  of  the  connection  of  the  Lord's  Supper  with  it. 
The  Agape  continued  to  be  held  as  a  pious  and  cheerful 
Christian  meal  (Tert.  Apol.  39);  it  assumed  various  forms, 
and  was  often  held  in  churches,  but  at  a  later  period  the 
use  of  the  churches  for  the  Agape  was  prohibited.  The 
Lord's  Supper,  however,  had  been  transferred  to  form  part 
of  the  chief  service  of  worship  on  the  Lord's  day.  There 
is  not  a  trace  of  the  manner  in  which  the  change  came  to 
pass,  nor  of  any  discussion  about  it.  Wherever  and  by 
whomsoever  the  practice  began,  it  recommended  itself  and 
took  place  throughout  the  Christian  communities.  When 
transferred  to  the  close  of  the  Lord's  day  services,  and  made 

829 


230       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

the  culminating  point  of  the  whole,  the  solemnity  and  im- 
pressiveness  of  the  Lord's  Supper  were  probably  enhanced, 
and  the  impression  deepened  of  a  wonderful  and  sacred 
meaning,  bearing  on  Christians  only,  which  was  embodied 
in  the  ordinance.  Already  in  the  second  century  Christians 
like  Justin,  and  stiU  more  Clem.  Alex.,  show  a  consciousness 
of  some  analogy  between  the  contemporary  mysteries  and 
this  Christian  transaction ;  and  they  may  have  felt  that  the 
impressiveness  and  awe  aimed  at  in  the  mysteries  by  the 
restriction  of  admission  to  the  initiated,  might  advantage- 
ously be  secured  for  this  Christian  service ;  the  rather  that 
in  any  view  the  eucharist  embodies  a  confidential  meeting 
between  the  Christians  and  their  Lord.  This  feeling  grew 
in  intensity  and  in  the  range  of  matters  affected  by  it,  so 
that  a  fashion  of  secrecy  about  the  specialities  of  Christian 
faith  and  worship  grew  up  which  was  not  very  rational  nor 
very  edifying.  This  is  commonly  referred  to  as  the  dis- 
ciplina  arcani} 

On  the  other  hand,  a  total  exclusion  of  catechumens 
from  public  worship  could  not  be  thought  of ;  and  the  un- 
baptized  generally  could  be  shut  out  only  at  the  cost  of 
losing  many  likely  converts.  Accordingly,  the  service  was 
divided  into  two  parts :  the  first  part  included  the  reading 
of  Scripture  and  the  explanation  or  exhortation  which  was 
based  upon  it,  with  various  prayers,  mostly  short,  and  sing- 
ing ;  all  this  was  open.  Then  the  various  classes  of  persons 
who  constituted  the  iminitiated  or  the  lapsed  part  of  the 
audience  were  dismissed,  sometimes  with  a  short  prayer  for 
each ;  and  the  special  service  for  the  baptized  alone  began 
with  a  long  prayer,  and  the  communion  elements  were 
brought  in,  the  kiss  of  peace  exchanged  by  the  worshippers 
preceding  or  following.  The  first  part  of  the  service 
eventually  came   to   be   known    as   Missa   cafechumenorumy 

^  Applied  to  the  eucharist  with  its  forms,  baptism,  the  creed,  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  the  like.  All  these  were  to  be  adverted  to  with  precaution,  so 
as  not  to  reveal  details  in  the  presence  of  the  unbaptized,  nor  in  works  pub- 
lished to  the  world.  Eomanists  have  exaggerated  the  extent  to  which  it 
operated. 


180-313]  WORSHIP  231 

the  second  as  the  Missa  fidelium.  At  the  latter,  certainly 
in  many  parts  of  the  Church,^  baptized  children  were  present 
and  participated  (Const.  Jp.  viii  13.  4).  The  confession  of 
sins  mentioned  in  the  Didache  was  dropped,  though  a  warn- 
ing against  enmity  and  insincerity  was  retained.  The  bread 
was  usually  leavened,  and  the  cup  contained  wine  and  water. 
Clement  of  Alexandria  and  Cyprian  mention  some  who  took 
upon  them  to  celebrate  with  water  only. 

In  the  minds  of  Christians  the  ordinance  retained  the 
significance  explained  in  speaking  of  the  earlier  period.^ 
Christians  brought  their  gifts  (Swpa)  of  created  things,  as 
the  appointed  and  acceptable  token  of  their  self-devotion. 
In  this  connection  the  prayer  enlarged  on  the  power  and 
goodness  of  God  in  creation.  But  the  celebrant  also  re- 
hearsed the  words  of  institution,  and  followed  these  (but 
not  at  Eome  apparently)  with  prayer  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
might  be  sent  upon  the  offering,  that  He  might  manifest 
the  bread  and  wine  to  be  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and 
that  the  participants  might  receive  the  various  benefits  of 
redemption.  Those  who  expound  the  ordinance  sometimes 
explain  the  sacrament  allegoricaUy, — it  is  a  wonderful  figure 
through  which  the  realities  are  presented  and  brought  home 
to  Christians ;  sometimes  dynamically, — a  special  virtue  to 
carry  the  blessings  is  imparted  to  the  elements  by  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  sometimes  the  thought  is  that  Christ  or  the  Logos 
appropriates  the  elements  so  that  they  are  related  to  Him 
as  His  body  is,  and  carry  His  presence  and  virtue  in  a 
special  manner  with  them. 

Reference  was  made  under  the  former  period  to  the 
way  in  which  the  thought  of  offering  or  sacrifice,  originally 
arising  in  connection  with  the  gifts,  was  extended  in  the 
current  use  of  language  to  the  whole  eucharistic  service. 
That  is  still  more  plainly  the  case  during  this  period ;  the 
sacrament  is  spoken  of  as  the  offering  or  sacrifice ;  ^  yet  it 
is  not  common  to  find  the  idea  presented  that  the  congrega- 
tion offer  Christ  to  God.     Eather  the  thought  is  that  they 

^  Africa  and  the  East.  *  ATde,  p.  77. 

*  'jrpoa<popb,y  dvala. 


232  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHtTRCH  [a.d. 

are  allowed  to  make  an  offering,  in  which,  as  it  proceeds, 
Christ  makes  Himself  present,  so  that  the  access  and  the 
privilege  of  the  worshipper  become  singularly  great.  But 
already  one  meets  with  language  which  literally  means  more, 
as  when  Cyprian  says  that  the  passion  of  the  Lord  is  the 
sacrifice  which  we  offer  (Up.  Ixiii.  17). 

In  connection  with  these  conceptions,  the  idea  of  the 
priesthood  of  the  higher  clergy  took  root.  In  Justin  the 
whole  body  of  believers  are  the  high-priestly  race  who  are 
able  to  offer  acceptable  sacrifices.  But  when  the  Lord's 
Supper  became  the  great  and  mysterious  sacrifice  which 
crowned  the  service,  then,  as  none  but  the  bishop  and 
presbyters  were  thought  entitled  to  transact  it,  nothing  was 
more  natural  than  to  go  back  to  the  Levitical  dispensation, 
and  find  in  the  bishop  and  presbyters  the  high  priest  and 
priests  of  a  better  dispensation.  (The  bishop  has  the  com- 
plete priesthood,  especially  for  Cyprian  ;  the  presbyters  have 
it  in  a  more  subordinate  and  dependent  way.)  The  bishops 
having  apostolic  authority  on  the  one  hand,  and  (with  their 
presbyters)  exclusive  sacerdotal  aptitude  on  the  other,  the 
whole  dispensation  is  in  their  hands,  and  a  mysterious 
sacredness  and  ritual  power  is  supposed  to  be  lodged  in 
them.  The  ascription  of  the  name  of  priest  to  the  Christian 
minister  begins  with  Tertullian  (about  A.D.  200),  though  he 
himself  maintains  vigorously  the  priestly  character  of  all 
Christians  as  such.  The  language  of  Cyprian  is  strongly 
sacerdotal. 

No  one  can  wish  to  minimise  the  degree  in  which  the 
grace  of  Christ  came  home  to  these  early  believers,  as  in 
other  ways  so  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  It  must  be  said,  how- 
ever, that,  in  the  rite  which  crowned  Christian  worship,  the 
impression  of  an  inexplicable  wonder  tended  to  occupy  the 
mind  to  the  injury  of  the  spiritual  impressions  at  which 
the  ordinance  aims.  This  made  it  easier  to  cherish  notions 
of  an  efficacy,  mechanical  and  meritorious,  by  which  the 
participants  benefited. 

The  specimens  we  have  of  common  prayers,  suggest  a 
style   of  prayer  formed   originally  by  the  practice  of  free 


180-313]  WORSHIP  233 

supplications ;  but  a  tendency  to  fix  the  forms  used,  especi- 
ally in  the  administration  of  the  eucharist,  was  natural. 
Administrations  regarded  as  having  mysterious  sacredness 
and  virtue,  might  seem  to  require  specially  consecrated  and 
adapted  words  to  secure  their  authenticity ;  and  forms  be- 
lieved to  embody  the  petitions  used  by  venerated  prede* 
cessors  in  the  more  solemn  parts  of  the  rite,  would  acquire 
authority  and  sacredness.  But  though  many  phrases,  which 
afterwards  became  liturgical,  had  doubtless  already  fixed 
themselves  in  the  usage  of  public  prayer,  and  forms  had 
established  themselves  more  or  less,  yet  historical  evidence 
for  liturgies  falls  later. 

The  case  of  baptism  reveals  the  disposition  to  make 
much  of  Christian  ordinances  by  enriching  them  with 
imaginative  allegorical  ceremonies.  It  was  usually  per- 
formed by  immersion,  or  by  pouring  water  on  the  head  while 
the  candidate  stood  in  what  served  for  a  font,  or  by  both 
together.^  But  before  the  end  of  the  third  century  a  group 
of  ritual  circumstances  preceded  and  followed.  The  cate- 
chumen experienced  a  preparatory  imposition  of  hands,  and 
in  some  parts  of  the  Church  a  preparatory  anointing.  When 
his  Christian  instruction  was  closing,  the  form  of  the  creed 
and  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  was  delivered  to  him.  A  form 
of  exorcism,  or  of  renunciation,  one  or  both,  was  gone 
through ;  for  to  the  early  Christian  mind  the  world  was  in 
captivity  to  the  wicked  one ;  his  emissaries  pervaded  it ; 
adjuration  and  prayer  in  the  name  of  Christ  could  drive 
them  away ;  and  the  man  who  passed  from  that  kingdom  at 
his  baptism,  ought  himself  to  renounce  it.  In  the  renuncia- 
tion the  candidate  faced  the  west,  and  with  a  thrusting  motion 
of  his  arms  he  renounced  Satan  thrice ;  turning  to  the  east, 
witli  outstretched  hands,  he  invoked  and  acknowledged  Christ 
or  the  Trinity. 

After  baptism  there  was  the  kiss  by  the  bishop  and 
representatives  of  the  faithful,  the  baptized  tasted  milk  and 
honey,  they  were  anointed,  and  received  imposition  of  hands, 

^  Sprinkling  came  to  be  considered  appropriate  only  in  baptism  of  sick 
persons. 


234  THE  ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.D. 

with  prayer  for  the  Holy  Spirit.  Other  ceremonies  and 
usages  appear  immediately  after  the  close  of  this  period,  and 
may  have  obtained  before  it  closed.^ 

The  rule  was  that  baptism  should  be  administered  by 
the  bishop  and  his  clergy,  as  a  great  function  which  in- 
terested the  whole  church.  At  the  same  time,  in  case  of 
need,  presbyters  and  clergy  of  the  lower  ranks  might  bap- 
tize, and  in  special  circumstances  laymen  also ;  this  latitude 
was  hardly,  and  very  grudgingly,  extended  to  women.  The 
anointing  and  laying  on  of  hands  was  considered  to  be 
especially  appropriate  to  the  bishop.  Hence,  in  baptism 
administered  by  clergy  of  lower  rank,  the  reservation  of 
these  parts  of  the  ceremony  to  a  time  when  the  bishop 
could  perform  it.  But  this  separation  obtained  chiefly  in 
the  West.  Ascribing  to  each  part  of  the  ceremony  a  dis- 
tinctive meaning,  baptism  was  considered  to  be  connected 
with  washing  away  sins,  and  the  unction  with  imposition  of 
hands  intimated  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  solemn 
and  ceremonial  baptisms  were  usually  carried  through  on 
the  eve  of  Easter  or  of  Pentecost, — especially  the  former. 
The  catechetical  preparation  had  occupied  the  previous  season, 
and  the  neophytes  communicated  for  the  first  time  at  the 
great  Easter  celebration.  Later,  the  right  to  have  these 
solemn  ceremonial  baptisms  was  a  privilege  of  the  bishop's 
church.  But  this  restriction  had  to  yield  eventually  to 
necessities  arising  from  the  number  of  the  candidates,  and 
the  growing  custom  of  infant  baptism. 

All  through  the  present  period,  and  for  a  good  while 
after,  the  conspicuous  and  prevailing  type  of  baptism  is 
baptism  of  adults.  That  was  so,  of  course,  at  the  outset, 
when  the  Church  was  busy  gathering  in  her  converts ;  and 
it  still  continues  to  be  so.  Nevertheless,  infant  baptism  was 
recognised  already  in  the  second  century,  though  it  is  not 
certain  that  the  statement  applies  equally  to  all  parts  of  the 
Church.  The  passage  of  Irenaeus,  quoted  on  this  subject, 
seems   conclusive  in    the   light    of   his    customary    use    of 

1  The  lively  ceremonial  of  the  renunciation,  as  given  above,  is  from 
authorities  in  the  fourth  century. 


180-313]  WORSHIP  235 

language.^  Tertullian  recognises  the  practice,  though  he 
disapproves  of  it ;  and  he  would  almost  certainly  have 
stigmatised  it  as  a  novelty  if  he  had  known  it  to  be  recent. 
Apparently,  therefore,  two  practices  existed  side  by  side, 
both  of  which  had  considerable  authority.  There  seems  to 
be  no  trace  of  infant  baptism  in  Clement  of  Alexandria ; 
passages  which  imply  it  occur  in  Origen,  in  works  written 
after  he  left  Alexandria ;  and  it  has  been  inferred  that  infant 
baptism  was  not  yet  practised  in  the  Egyptian  church  at  the 
beginning  of  the  third  century,  though  it  was  then  received 
as  an  apostolic  tradition  in  Palestine.  Some  recent  historians 
have  suggested  that  there  may  have  been  a  time  when  children 
of  Christian  parents  were  not  supposed  to  require  baptism  at 
all;  but  that  seems  most  unlikely,  and  there  is  no  valid 
support  for  the  notion.  Tertullian  argues  that  the  benefit  of 
baptism  will  be  greater  when  it  is  received  by  the  adult,  who 
desires  remission  of  sins  committed  in  his  wayward  youth. 
And  parents  probably  experienced  a  collision  of  opposite 
interests  in  the  matter, — sometimes  yielding  to  the  reasons 
alleged  by  Tertullian,  sometimes,  on  the  other  hand,  to  the 
dread  that  delay  might  lead  to  their  children  dying  unbaptized.^ 
In  connection  with  infant  baptism,  sponsors,  who  vowed  on 
behalf  of  the  children,  appear  as  early  as  Tertullian  (susceptores 
— fideij'ussores).  Against  some  who  advocated  baptism  on  the 
eighth  day  after  birth,  according  to  the  rule  of  circumcision, 
Cyprian  recommends  baptism  on  the  second  or  third  day. 

The  practice  of  standing  at  prayer  on  the  Lord's  day 
instead  of  kneeling  as  at  other  times,  is  one  instance  out 
of  many  how  a  distinction,  which  must  have  originated  in 
some  locality,  commended  itself  generally  to  Christian  hearts 
and  imaginations,  and  became  a  rule.  On  the  Lord's  day 
they  stood,  because  it  was  associated  with  the  joy  and  vic- 
tory of  the  resurrection.  A  similar  prevalence  of  a  practice, 
of  whose  origin  there  is  no  trace,  is  the  practice  of  turning 
to  the  east  in  public  prayer.^  No  doubt  the  motive  was  a 
reference  to  the  rising  of  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness.    Another 

*  ii.  22.  4.  *de  Bapt.  18. 

»  Tert  Apol.  16,  ad  Nat.  i.  13. 


Hi 


236       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

ease  is  the  observance  of  Wednesday  and  Friday  for  week- 
day meetings.  There  were  cases,  however,  in  which  this 
unanimity  was  not  attained ;  for  example,  in  regard  to  the 
celebration  of  Easter. 

The  earlier  history  of  this  matter  has  been  referred  to 
in  Chap.  IV.  Some  observed  the  14th  Nisan  on  whatever 
day  of  the  week  it  fell,  while  the  greater  part  of  the  Church 
observed  Friday  and  Sunday  in  a  week  fixed  so  that  Easter 
Sunday  followed  14th  Nisan.^ 

Those  who  observed  on  14th  Nisan  were  called  Quarto- 
decimans  {TeaaapeaKatBeKaTLTat) :  they  were  themselves 
not  quite  at  one,  apparently,  as  to  the  meaning  of  their  own 
observance.  Those  again  who,  with  the  majority  of  churches, 
kept  Good  Friday  and  Easter  Sunday,  had  their  own  diffi- 
culty in  attaining  the  harmony  they  desired.  For  the  basis 
of  all  Easter  calculations,  at  least  from  the  third  century, 
was  the  day  of  the  spring  equinox :  now  that  was  not 
reckoned  alike  in  all  places ;  and  so  in  different  churches 
Easter  might  fall  in  different  weeks,  and  in  some  even 
before  the  true  equinox.^ 

/  The  diversity  of  practice,  as  already  mentioned,^  came 
into  discussion  about  A.D.  155,  when  Poly  carp  of  Smyrna 
visited  Anicetus  of  Eome.  Each  maintained  the  right  of 
his  own  church,  but  they  parted  in  peace.  In  or  after 
A.D.  192  Victor  of  Eome  took  steps  to  elicit  the  mass  of 
opinion  favourable  to  the  practice  of  his  church,  and  to 
concuss  the  Asiatics  into  conformity.  He  proposed  to  cut 
them  ofif  from  communion  in  case  of  contumacy.  Poly  crates 
of  Ephesus  defended  the  Asiatic  tradition,  and  as  Irenseus  / 
with    other    influential     bishops     deprecated     the    violenw 

^  All  accounts  of  the  origin  of  this  difference  are  conjectural ;  but  even 
the  exact  nature  of  it  has  created  lively  dispute.  The  historical  questions 
have  been  biassed  by  considerations  connected  with  the  controversies  about 
the  Fourth  Gospel.  See  article  by  Steiz,  Realencycl.  xi.  140,  and  revised  by 
"Wagemaun,  Realencycl.^  xi.  270. 

2  The  Jews  at  this  time  neglected  the  equinox,  and  carried  on  their  com- 
putation on  principles  which  gave  very  irregular  results.  Till  the  third 
century  the  Christians  followed  them :  and  even  later  a  party  stood  out  for 
this  observance. 

»  Ante,  p.  83. 


__J80-313]  WORSHIP  237 

i 

measures   of   Victor,  his  plans   failed,   though    communion 
between  Rome  and  Ephesus  probably  was  suspended.    . 

The  irda'xa  was  originally  conceived  as  the  commemora- 
tion  of  our  Lord's  suffering  and  death,  which  had  its  centre 
in  the  Friday.  The  fast  might  begin  earlier  (one  day,  two 
days,  four  days, — the  extension  to  forty  days  came  later), 
but  it  ended  on  the  Sunday  morning,  on  which  the  eucharist 
was  celebrated  and  the  gladness  of  the  resurrection  com- 
menced, which  extended  to  Pentecost.  It  became  usual 
for  the  assembled  congregation  to  watch  during  the  night 
preceding  Easter  Sunday,  and  baptism  was  then  administered 
to  the  candidates  who  had  been  in  preparation.  On  the 
fortieth  day  after  Easter  the  Ascension  was  commemorated, 
on  the  fiftieth  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  at  Pente- 
cost. During  the  whole  time  of  Pentecost  no  fasting  took 
place,  the  eucharist  was  celebrated  daily,  and  the  congrega- 
tion prayed  standing,  not  kneeling. 

The  only  other  festival,  unknown  as  yet  in  the  West, 
but  observed  in  the  East,  was  Epiphany,  on  6th  January. 
It  commemorated  the  manifestation  of  Christ — especially  in 
His  baptism.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  Gnostic  celebra- 
tion of  Christ's  baptism  on  this  day,  and  that,  no  doubt,  was 
grounded  in  the  idea  that  at  his  baptism  the  man  Jesus 
received  a  higher  potency  and  became  the  Eedeemer.  In 
the  orthodox  celebration  some  reference  to  the  birth  of 
Christ,  as  the  preliminary  to  all  the  rest,  was  natural ;  but 
it  was  subordinate ;  and  the  day  was  not  supposed  to  be  the 
true  anniversary  of  that  event.^ 

The  way  of  feeling  and  acting  about  the  Christian  dead  ^ 

*  The  extended  reference  of  this  feast  to  Christ's  manifestation  to  the  wise 
men  (as  representing  the  world)  and  in  His  miracles  (at  Cana),  seems  to  be 
connected  with  the  adoption  of  the  feast  during  the  fourth  century  in  the 
West :  where  also  the  idea  suggested  itself  that  these  events,  as  well  as  the 
baptism,  all  took  place  on  6th  January. 

^  Baptized  persons  dying  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Church  were  so  regarded. 
Martyrdom,  or  death  for  the  confession  of  the  Kame,  was  equivalent  to 
baptism  in  the  case  of  persons  not  yet  baptized,  and  to  restoration  in  the  case 
of  the  fallen  not  yet  restored.  The  idea  that  the  purpose  to  be  baptized  may 
stand  for  baptism  in  the  case  of  persons  unexpectedly  overtaken  by  death,  is 
also  expressed,  but  not  so  authoritatively  (Tert.  de  Bapt,  18). 


238       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.©. 

was  significant.  They  "slept  in  Jesus":  therefore  the 
burial-ground  became  the  cemetery  or  sleeping-place ;  and 
Christian  burials,  whatever  natural  sadness  attended  them, 
were  characterised  by  thankfulness  and  hope.  Of  the  two 
ways  of  burial  practised  in  the  empire,  cremation  and  in- 
humation, the  latter  was  adopted  by  the  Christians  because 
it  fell  in  better  with  the  hope  of  resurrection,  and  with 
reverence  for  the  body  which  had  been  consecrated  to  the 
obedience  of  Christ.  Otherwise  minor  national  customs, 
which  were  not  idolatrous,  could  be  continued.  No  im- 
purity was  conceived  to  attach  to  the  remains ;  and  they 
were  accompanied  to  their  resting-place  with  singing. 
Christians  showed  the  common  feeling  of  reverence  for 
graves,  and  of  anxiety  that  they  should  be  preserved  in- 
violate. Objects  of  ornament  or  use  which  had  an  interest 
for  the  departed  while  they  lived,  were  often  deposited  in 
the  tombs.  It  was  also  felt  to  be  natural  that  the  Chris- 
tian dead  should  be  associated  together;  hence  Christians 
early  provided  common  burial-places ;  or  Christians  of 
position,  who  had  family  cemeteries,  admitted  the  interment 
in  them  of  Christian  brethren  of  all  degrees.  But  the 
bodies  of  unbelievers  were  not  admitted,  though  it  was 
reckoned  a  seemly  thing  for  Christians,  in  case  of  need,  to 
render  the  last  offices  to  the  heathen  also;  and  in  times  of 
pestilence  the  courage  and  kindness  of  Christians  in  this 
department  became  conspicuous.^  In  the  neighbourhood  of 
large  cities  excavations  in  beds  of  soft  rock  were  resorted 
to ;  hence  the  catacombs  at  Eome,  Naples,  and  other  places.^ 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  Christian  catacombs  could  have 
served  as  places  of  worship  in  times  of  persecution ;  but  no 
doubt  they  were  resorted  to  by  members  of  families  under 
the  impulse  of  pious  affection,  and  later  they  became  places 
of  pilgrimage.  They  have  preserved  to  us  the  early  efforts 
of  Christian  art. 

The  Christian  dead  were  in  fellowship  with  Christ  and 

1  Cyprian,  Vita,  9,  10. 

2  De  Eossi,  Roma  Sotterranea  Christiana,  3  vols.  1864-77  ;  Northcote  and 
Brownlow,  Bom.  Sott.  1879. 


180-313]  WORSHIP  239 

with  the  one  Church  in  earth  and  heaven,  and  the  desire 
to  express  this  conviction  found  expression  in  various  ways. 
The  most  impressive  related  to  martyrs.  All  instances  of 
martyrdom  were  hailed  with  triumph,  and  the  martyrs  them- 
selves were  regarded  as  specially  honoured  of  God.  It  was 
felt  to  be  a  privilege  to  continue  to  associate  them  with  the 
Church's  service ;  they  came  therefore  to  be  named  in  the 
eucharistic  prayers,  and  those  who  were  joined  in  the  prayer 
were  conceived  to  experience  some  benefit  by  it.  This  usage 
was  extended  to  the  Christian  dead  generally.  Besides,  it  was 
usual  to  visit  the  graves  of  the  departed  on  the  anniversary 
of  death,  and  to  engage  in  exercises  which  came  to  include 
offerings  and  supplications  for  their  repose.  TertulHan  is 
the  earliest  authority:  he  adduces  the  practice  as  one  of 
those  which  has  no  warrant  in  Scripture,  but  rests  on 
custom  only  {de  Cor.  3).  All  this  appears  to  have  been 
grounded  on  the  Christian  feeling,  that  for  Christians  death 
does  not  break  the  fellowship  of  life  in  Christ.  It  led, 
however,  into  the  practice  of  prayer  for  the  dead,  which  is 
without  New  Testament  example ;  and  that  led  in  turn  to  a 
craving  for  definite  conceptions  as  to  the  benefit  which  might 
accrue  to  the  dead  in  this  line,  and  as  to  the  elements  in 
their  state  which  made  them  capable  of  such  benefits. 
Hence  came  by  and  by  the  doctrines  of  purgatory,  of  the 
twofold  punishment  of  sin,  and  of  the  distinct  conditions 
under  which  each  is  remitted.  In  the  next  period  prayers 
for  those  departed  in  the  faith  are  found  in  almost  every 
form  of  eucharistic  rite. 

Not  much  is  known  directly  of  the  form  and  arrange- 
ment of  the  places  in  which  Christians  met  for  worship. 
As  the  number  of  Christians  grew,  these  arrangements  must 
have  varied.  Before  the  end  of  the  period  buildings  set 
apart  for  Christian  worship  ^  existed  in  various  places.  At 
an  earlier  period  Christians  met  where  they  could, — in  large 
rooms,  in  halls  erected  for  public  purposes  but  hired  by  the 
Christians,  or  in  private  houses.  The  central  court  of  a 
large  Koman  mansion  might  often  serve  for  this  purpose. 


240  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH     [a.d.  180-313 

The  description  of  Christian  worship  in  the  second  book  of 
the  Apostolic  Constitutions  is  supposed  to  date  from  the  third 
century.  It  recommends  for  the  building  an  oblong  form 
looking  to  the  east,  entering  presumably  from  the  west.  It 
contained  the  table  for  Communion  ^  (called  also  altar  from 
the  time  of  Tertullian  and  Cyprian),  and  an  elevated  place 
for  the  reader  and  probably  for  preaching.  At  the  east  end 
was  to  be  the  chair  ^  for  the  bishop,  with  a  bench  on  each  side 
for  the  presbyters.  The  Christian  people  were  in  the  middle 
or  nave,  the  sexes  separate.  Farther  down  were  the 
catechumens,  the  penitents,  the  energumens,  and  unbelievers : 
these  classes  were  called  upon  to  withdraw  before  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  eucharist.  At  a  later  period  the  classes, 
just  referred  to  were  expected  to  stand  in  a  vestibule 
divided  off  at  the  west  end  (narthex) ;  and  the  eastern  end 
of  the  church,  containing  the  holy  table  and  the  clergy,  was 
also  more  decidedly  separated  from  the  rest.  The  churches 
which  had  been  erected  towards  the  end  of  the  third 
century,  and  which  were  destroyed  or  confiscated  in  Dio- 
cletian's persecution,  may  generally  have  approached  this 
type.  But  there  was  another  plan,  circular  or  hexagonal, 
which  probably  existed  then,  as  it  did  later.  The  former 
type  had  its  precedent  in  the  Basilica — the  hall  of  justice 
or  of  business  in  imperial  cities.  The  latter  may  have  been 
suggested  by  the  mortuary  chapels,  if  one  may  call  them 
so,  in  which  families  met  to  commemorate  departed  friends. 
These  had  been  in  use  among  Christians  as  well  as  among 
the  heathen.  And  in  times  of  persecution  they  were  pro- 
tected by  the  laws  regarding  burial,  and  by  the  Eoman 
sentiment  on  that  subject.^ 

^  Mensa,  rpdire^a  ;  Ara,  6v(rta<xri^piop, 

*  Kadi 8 pa. 

*  Baldwin  Brown,  From  Schola  to  Cathedraif  1 886, 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Clergy 

From  the  beginning  of  this  period  we  find  in  churches  a 
presiding  person,  distinguished  as  the  bishop.  At  the  outset, 
indeed,  tokens  of  the  earlier  relations  still  survive :  Irenseus 
often  speaks  of  bishops  as  presbyters ;  and  while  the  three 
grades  are  present  to  the  mind  of  Clement  of  Alexandria,  as 
a  matter  of  fact  which  he  knows  and  accepts,  yet  in 
principle  and  for  ideal  purposes  he  sees  only  two  functions, 
those  of  elders  and  of  deacons.^  But  these  symptoms  soon 
disappear,  and  the  episcopate  gains  continually  in  influence 
and  distinction. 

It  is  true  that  episcopal  authority  was  not  despotic ;  and 
if  modern  writers  call  it  "  monarchical,"  it  was  at  first  a  very 
constitutional  monarchy.  The  presbyters,  as  the  standing 
council  of  the  church,  had  to  be  consulted  and  carried  along; 
in  important  matters  Cyprian  frankly  takes  for  granted  that 
the  church  as  well  as  the  presbyters  must  have  its  voice. 
Even  in  matters  that  were  left  in  the  bishop's  hands,  the 
conscience  of  the  church  demanded  that  he  should  act  by 
rule,  and  carry  out  principles  :  and  all  good  bishops  desired 
to  fortify  that  conviction.  Moreover,  as  the  church  existed 
by  the  consent,  the  support,  the  love  and  prayers  of  its 
members,  no  sane  bishop  could  propose  to  himself  to  defy 
their  disapprobation  or  to  disregard  their  opinions.  During 
this  whole  period  the  evidence  is  ample  that  the  membership 
of  the  church  felt  keenly  interested  in  the  church  affairs, 
and  had  no  hesitation  in  forming  and  expressing  opinion. 
The  bishop  therefore  lived  in  an  atmosphere  which  he  could 
1  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  vL  13  j  vii.  1, 
i6 


242       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

not  disregard.  He  might  feel  it  his  duty  to  resist  popular 
tendencies:  Cyprian  would  not  yield  to  the  cry  for  lax 
discipline ;  but  in  order  to  hold  his  ground  he  had  to  rally 
opinion,  and  to  consider  well  where  he  should  make  his 
stand.  But  episcopal  influence  and  authority  kept  increas- 
ing. In  every  church  the  bishop  was  the  most  representative 
man.  Also  while  other  office-bearers  might  have  departments 
allotted  to  them,  the  bishop  had  general  oversight.  In  every 
function  of  the  assembled  church  he  presided :  in  those  rites, 
the  administration  of  which  came  to  be  reserved  to  him, — 
nay,  even  in  those  which  fell  to  him  usually,  though  not 
always, — the  sacredness  of  the  rite  accrued  to  the  dignity  of 
the  man.  The  public  teaching  of  the  Church  fell  largely 
into  his  hands ;  but  where  other  office-bearers  taught,  they 
were  conceived  to  do  so  under  his  sanction.^  Eound  him  the 
general  sacredness  and  supernaturalness  of  the  Church  tended 
to  concentrate  itself,  because  he  stood  alone :  what  was 
supernatural  in  the  Church  was  most  adequately  represented 
by  the  bishop.  This  was  the  tendency  of  the  system,  realised 
more  fully  in  the  case  of  remarkable  and  energetic  bishops. 
It  did  not  prevent  bishops  being  roughly  handled  when 
human  infirmities  on  either  side  gave  occasion ;  but  it  was  a 
force  in  reserve  which  came  into  play  eventually,  and 
generally  prevailed. 

The  tendency  thus  existing  developed  itself  in  theoretical 
forms  which  made  it  more  effective.  Everything  that  existed 
rightfully  in  the  Church,  being  regarded  as  part  of  a  divine 
plan,  must  express  a  divine  intention.  The  bishop  existed 
rightfully,  therefore  this  principle  eminently  applied  to  him. 
The  distinctive  divine  intentions  in  regard  to  the  episcopate 
were  conceived  inferentially.  The  tradition  of  the  churches 
had  been  appealed  to,  quite  reasonably,  as  fixing  the  main 
articles  of  Christianity  against  the  Gnostics.  But  the 
obvious  way  of  making  that  argument  tell,  was  to  name 
the  men  ^  who  were  believed  to  have  stood  successively  at 

*  "With  the  same  sanction  instructed  laymen  also  taught  the  congregation. 
Const.  Ap.  viii.  32,  and  Cone.  Carth.  iv.  98. 

*  Polycarpus  a  Joanne,  Clemens  a  Petro  ordinatur,  etc.     Tert.  de  Prcescr.  82» 


180-313]  CLERGY  243 

the  head  of  those  churches,  each  reproducing  and  guarding 
in  his  own  day  what  he  had  previously  imbibed  as  Christian 
teaching.  This,  therefore,  was  one  thing  divinely  intended  in 
the  case  of  bishops,  namely,  to  afford  a  special  guarantee 
for  doctrinal  continuity  and  purity.  It  was  to  be  presumed 
that  somehow  divine  care  enabled  them  to  be  sufficient  for 
this  function.  Hence  Irenseus  speaks  of  their  charisma 
veritatiSy  though  this  is  not  much  dwelt  on,  and  is  nowhere 
defined.^ 

Again,  Montanism  had  striven  to  assert  the  prophetic 
element  in  the  churches,  so  as  to  embody  a  dispensation 
of  the  Spirit  among  the  members  that  should  outweigh  the 
office-bearers.  Montanism  had  failed :  the  Church  in  the 
continuity  and  order  of  its  organisation  had  repelled  Montan- 
ism. The  Church,  however,  continued  to  have  the  Holy 
Spirit :  the  functions  by  which  His  operations  were  expressed 
were  administered  by  the  office-bearers,  and  the  chief  of  these 
functions  usually  or  exclusively  by  the  bishops.  Ritually, 
the  office-bearers,  but  eminently  the  bishop,  gave  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Therefore,  according  to  the  logic  then  current,  he  had 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  such  a  sense  that  he  could  give  Him. 

It  was  only  by  degrees  that  such  impressions  produced 
their  effect  on  the  general  Christian  mind.  The  full  realisa- 
tion of  them  depended  on  the  improvement  of  opportunities 
by  eminent  bishops.  But  it  is  easy  to  see  how  such  impres- 
sions as  they  grew  strengthened  the  bishop's  position,  especially 
as  regards  the  effect  of  his  negative  voice.  Relations  in  a 
society  may  be  confidential,  friendly,  and  frank.  But  if  there 
is  one  man  in  it  whose  "  non-possumus"  is  likely  to  stop 
everything,  he  must  be  treated  with  exceptional  deference. 
Cyprian  never  says  that  a  bishop  is  infallible,  or  that  his 
power  is  absolute,  or  that  he  is  entitled  to  govern  his  flock 
at  his  own  sole  will  But  he  does  convey  the  impression 
that  his  dignity  and  authority  are  unique,  that  his  decisions 
are  to  be  treated  with  great  deference,  and  that  opposition  to 
him  involves  exceptional  responsibility.  And  he  does  tell  a 
contumacious  deacon  in  another  church  that,  as  the  Lord 

1  Conir.  ffoer.  iv.  26.  2. 


244       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

appointed  bishops,  whereas  deacons  were  instituted  merely 
by  apostolic  authority,  a  deacon  should  as  little  take  liberties 
with  his  bishop  as  a  bishop  should  take  liberties  with  God.^ 

Synods  met  to  discuss  important  questions,  and  in  the 
third  century  they  met  regularly  in  various  provinces  once 
or  twice  a  year.  Though  presbyters  also  attended,  the 
episcopal  vote  soon  became  the  decisive  one.  The  bishops 
were  the  men  who  were  best  entitled  to  speak  in  their 
own  name,  and  best  entitled  to  speak  in  the  name  also  of 
their  churches  which  had  elected  them.  Provincial  Synods, 
as  a  rule,  were  summoned  by  the  bishop  of  the  metropolis 
of  the  province,  met  in  his  city,  and  under  his  presidency. 
Hence  such  bishops  acquired  a  recognised  authority  and 
precedence  {Mn^TpoTrokiTaC),  perhaps  carried  out  with  greater 
regularity  in  the  East.  In  the  two  African  provinces, 
Mauretania  and  Numidia,  the  bishop  who  happened  to  be 
oldest  presided ;  in  proconsular  Africa,  always  the  bishop  of 
Carthage.  Early  in  next  period  other  distinctions  were 
developed :  but  already  the  bishops  of  Eome,  Antioch,  and 
Alexandria  were  exceptionally  important,  and  influenced 
many  neighbouring  churches.  In  the  West,  Eome  had  the 
further  distinction  of  being  the  only  apostolic  see. 

Much  was  decided  when  the  relation  of  bishops  to  the 
multiplying  flocks  in  each  city  or  each  neighbourhood  was 
fixed.  Originally  {ante,  p.  35  fol.)  the  bishop  was  chief  min- 
ister of  one  flock.2  As  Christians  multiplied  in  great  cities, 
to  assemble  the  whole  church  became  more  difficult.  It 
could  only  be  attempted  on  very  special  occasions.  Local 
sectional  gatherings  acquired  more  and  more  importance. 
Gradually  they  assumed  the  character  of  distinct  com- 
munities— quasi  churches.  At  each  stage,  in  a  gradual 
process,  adaptation  sets  in.  The  one  bishop  remained, 
the  staff  of  lower  clergy  was  increased.  This  arrange- 
ment naturally  extended  itself  to  the  suburbs  and  nearer 
country  districts.  Hence,  where  Christianity  was  growing, 
the   same  bishop  became  president  of  different   companies 

1  Ep.  iii.  3. 

*  TMs  is  still  the  ideal  in  the  sketch  of  a  church  in  Const.  Apost.  iL  57. 


180-313]  CLERGY  245 

of  Christians,  and  these  were  regarded  as  members  of  one 
church,  which  formed  his  TrapotKia.  This  is  the  decisive 
step  towards  the  hierarchy.  One  does  not  see,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  early  episcopacy,  any  objection  in  principle 
to  the  constitution  of  each  distinct  congregation  (to  use  our 
modern  phrase)  into  a  bishopric.  But  feeling,  and  also,  in 
some  respects,  the  natural  development  of  affairs,  were  against 
it.  These  influences  decided  the  course  of  affairs  in  the 
populous  centres  where  Christianity  grew  most  quickly  ;  and 
so  the  type  was  set  for  the  organisation  elsewhere.  The 
bishop  was  thus  released  from  his  strict  connection  with  one 
flock,  emancipated  in  some  measure  from  the  influences  which 
surrounded  him  there,  and  put  in  the  way  of  becoming  a 
more  conspicuous  and  influential  person.  In  each  of  the 
separate  Christian  communities  which  begin  to  multiply  under 
him,  he  is  by  and  by  replaced  by  a  permanent  parish  presbyter, 
who  for  most  purposes  performs  the  acts  whicli  the  bishop 
performed  in  the  earlier  single  congregation.  In  Eome 
about  the  middle  of  the  third  century  there  were  forty-six 
presbyters ;  about  the  end  of  the  century  there  were  forty 
churches.  Probably  the  principle  of  connecting  a  presbyter 
permanently  with  each  special  flock  and  building  had  been 
accepted. 

Yet  villages  in  the  country  had  in  many  cases  been 
provided  with  bishops  who  came  to  be  called  country-bishops 
('X^copeTriaKOTroi).  They  were  really  bishops  who  had  but  the 
one  local  flock  to  attend  to.  Probably,  too,  they  often  had 
few  or  even  no  presbyters.  They  continued  for  a  considerable 
time,  but  came  more  and  more  to  be  regarded  as  anomalous 
in  the  general  system  of  the  Church.  They  were  ultimately 
superseded,  and  their  flocks  grouped  under  bishops  on  what, 
in  later  phrase,  we  may  call  the  diocesan  plan. 

Bishops  were  appointed  by  public  election  conducted  in 
the  face  of  the  congregation,  the  voice  of  the  clergy,  at 
least  the  presbyters,  and  that  of  the  people  being  required. 
It  is  not  till  a  good  deal  later  that  we  have  any  detailed 
accounts  of  procedure  in  actual  cases ;  but  the  impression 
one  forms  is  that,  while  certain  principles    were  kept  in 


246       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

view,  the  methods  were  loose,  and  therefore  worked 
uncertainly.  Filling  of  civil  offices  by  election  continued 
to  exist  in  the  Koman  Empire,  and  probably  the  methods  of 
the  Church*  were  conformed  to  those  of  civil  society.  In 
both  cases  presiding  persons  had  considerable  authority  in 
regulating  the  proceedings.  The  election  was  not  complete 
until  the  presiding  officer  formally  pronounced  the  result 
(in  respect  of  which  he  was  often  said  to  appoint  or 
"create");  he  was  entitled  to  be  satisfied  as  to  the  legal 
qualifications  of  the  candidate,  as  well  as  with  respect  to 
the  sufficiency  of  the  vote ;  and  in  certain  circumstances  he 
could  take  the  initiative  by  himself  proposing  a  candidate.^ 
All  these  features  are  found  in  one  case  or  another  of 
ecclesiastical  elections.  In  the  third  century,  the  consent 
of  the  church  members  as  well  as  that  of  the  clergy 
was  certainly  held  necessary  to  an  election.  But  how  cases 
were  worked  out  when  a  serious  division  existed  or 
threatened,  we  do   not  clearly  see. 

It  is  likely  that  for  some  time,  at  least  in  some 
churches,  the  elevation  of  one  person  to  preside  as  bishop 
was  accomplished  within  the  church  concerned,  without  aid 
from  the  outside.  Apparently  such  an  arrangement 
survived  at  Alexandria  long  enough  to  attract  attention.^ 
But  in  the  course  of  the  third  century  the  rule  is  found 
operating,  that  the  neighbouring  bishops,  not  less  than  three, 
at  the  very  least  two,^  ought  to  be  present,  and,  of  course, 
preside  at  the  formal  election  and  instalment  of  a  bishop. 
Many  reasons  recommended  some  such  arrangement.  But 
the  feeling  or  doctrine  that  bishops  only  could  make  a 
bishop  became  accepted  as  the  conclusive  and  all-sufficing 
reason,  it  is  difficult  to  say  when.  The  same  difficulty 
applies  to  the  conception  of  a  distinct  ecclesiastical 
character  attaching  to  the  bishop  as  distinguished  from  the 

1  See  Hatch,  article  on  Ordination,  DicHonary  of  Christian  Antiquities,  ii. 
p.  1503. 

2  Hier.  Ep.  ad  Evang. 

'  The  presence  of  one  only  was  regarded  as  indicating  something  unfair  or 
factious,  unless  special  circumstances  established  a  necessity,  and  abseiit 
bishops  gave  written  consent     See  Hefele,  ConcUiengescTiichte,  i.  p.  373. 


180-813]  CLERGY  247 

presbyter.  The  formula  in  the  eighth  book  of  the 
Apostolic  Cotistitutions  (generally  referred  to  the  early  part 
of  the  fourth  century)  directs  the  deacons  to  hold  the 
gospel  over  the  head  of  the  new  bishop  during  the  prayer : 
imposition  of  hands  is  not  suggested.  As  the  relative  might 
of  the  bishop  grew,  his  distinct  order  or  grade  would  be 
assumed  as  self-evident. 

The  priesthood  ascribed  to  bishops  and  presbyters  has 
been  referred  to  in  connection  with  the  eucharist  (p.  232). 

Probably  election  by  the  church  had  been  the  original 
way  of  appointing  all  office-bearers,  subject  perhaps,  as 
before  indicated,  to  considerable  initiative  and  control  on 
the  part  of  the  presiding  person  or  persons.  Under  the 
episcopal  constitution  we  now  find  the  bishop  practically 
nominating  to  the  presbyterate  and  other  offices ;  but  in 
the  case  of  the  presbyterate,  at  least,  in  the  presence  of  the 
congregation,  and  inviting  their  consent.  That  consent  was 
seldom  likely  to  be  withheld  from  proposed  additions  to  a 
large  existing  staff,  the  names  proposed  being  in  most  cases 
previously  concerted  with  the  existing  clergy.  Naturally, 
therefore,  such  nominations  assumed  eventually  the  character 
of  authoritative  appointments. 

New  offices  were  added  during  our  period  to  meet  wants 
which  before  had  been  supplied  by  spontaneous  zeal  of 
members,  or  which  were  arising  out  of  the  growth  of 
churches.  The  work  of  the  deacons  was  supplemented  by 
Bubdeacons,  the  rather  that  there  was  an  indisposition  to 
extend  the  number  of  the  deacons  in  a  church  beyond  the 
seven  of  Acts  vL  Acolytes  (attendants)  took  up  other 
ministerial  duties.  Exorcists  dealt  with  persons  afflicted 
by  evil  spirits.  Headers  (ledores,  ava^yvoiarai)  read  the 
appointed  portions  of  Scripture.  Doorkeepers  (osfiarii, 
irvXwpoi)  took  charge  of  the  place  of  meeting.  These  are 
the  recognised  orders  in  the  West.  In  the  East  the  exorcist 
was  not  regarded  as  holding  an  office,  but  as  the  subject  of  a 
gift ;  and  that  was  so  also  in  the  West  as  late  as  Tertullian. 
On  the  other  hand,  singers  (cantores,  '^^okTaC)  seem  to  have 
a  clerical  character  in  the  East  but  not  in  the  West,  and 


248  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH     [a.d.  180-313 

fossores  (graved iggers)  come  into  view  as  functionaries,  but 
not  as  clergy.  Subdeacons,  acolytes,  exorcists,  readers,  door- 
keepers came  to  be  accepted  as  the  Western  arrangement, 
and  these  are  commonly  referred  to  as  minor  orders.^  The 
appointment  to  minor  orders  was  settled  generally  in  the 
bishop's  hands.  Cyprian's  practice  was  to  consult  his  clergy 
and  people  as  to  all  clerical  elections.  When,  during  his 
absence  in  time  of  persecution,  he  appoints  readers  and  a 
presbyter,  he  specifies  his  reasons  (^p.  38  and  foL). 

The  place  given  to  women  as  regards  Church  service  is 
not  quite  clear.  There  were  deaconesses  or  female  servants 
of  the  Church  in  the  apostolic  age,  and  apparently  also  in 
the  age  of  Trajan  (Pliny's  Epistle).  But  widows  also  are 
referred  to  in  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  and  we  hear  only  of 
widows,  as  a  recognised  class  in  the  Church,  during  greater 
part  of  our  period.  As  widows  were  supported  by  the 
Church,  those  of  them  who  were  qualified  were  employed, 
e.g.,  in  instructing  female  catechumens,  and  probably  in 
charitable  care  of  the  sick ;  and  they  appear  to  have  had  some 
charge  of  the  female  members.  This  arrangement  continued 
in  the  West  for  a  time.  But  in  the  East,  towards  the  end  of 
this  period,  the  deaconesses  appear  as  an  order  (Apost. 
Const  iii.  and  viii.),  and  receive  regular  ordination.  The 
first  General  Council  recognises  the  function,  but  seems 
to  forbid  ordination;  which,  however,  was  recognised  at 
Chalcedon2  (a.d.  451). 

^  According  to  the  later  and  the  modem  Church  of  Rome,  subdeacons  are 
reckoned  to  the  sacred  orders,  and  only  the  other  four  to  the  non-sacred. 
"  Clerus  minor"  occurs  first  in  De  Rebaptismo,  c.  10  (among  Cyprian's  works — 
before  a.d.  260),  but  not  so  as  to  make  its  meaning  quite  definite.  In  the 
civic  arrangements  of  the  empire,  the  name  "ordo"was  commonly  applied 
to  the  body  of  persons  holding  recognised  rank  in  a  community ;  but  some- 
times it  signifies  *  *  rank  "  simply,  lower  as  well  as  higher.  The  same  holds  in 
substance  of  the  Greek  word  /cX^os.  These  words  were  applied  in  Christian 
speech,  sometimes  to  express  any  rank  or  class,  but  more  usually  to  denote 
those  who  had  place  in  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  and  were  distinguished 
in  that  way  from  the  Christian  plebs.  (Compare  "classes  and  masses.") 
All  such  belonged  to  the  ordo  (or  ordines),  Gr.  n'Kijpos,  as  distinguished  from 
the  plebs  or  Xa6s. 

*  C(mc,  Nic.  Can.  19  ;  Cone.  Chalc.  Can.  15. 


CHAPTER   XV 

Discipline  and  Schisms 

In  the  early  Christian  writings  of  the  West,  disciplina 
denotes  the  conception  of  ordered  life  which  the  Church 
strove  to  impress  on  her  members.  In  modern  use,  the 
word  suggests  the  principles  and  processes  in  conformity 
with  which  Church  power  was  exerted  to  uphold  order  and 
to  repress  transgression.  This  is  the  sense  in  which  we  use 
the  word  here. 

Some  reference  has  already  been  made  to  it  in  speaking 
of  the  early  churches  (p.  42).  The  Church  had  from  the 
first  asserted  the  right  to  guard  its  character  by  excluding 
scandalous  and  unruly  persons  (1  Cor.  v.).  Sins  and 
imperfections  attached  to  Christians,  which  were  to  be 
borne  with,  as  common  infirmities ;  and  they  could  be  the 
more  easily  borne  with  because,  at  least  virtually  and  in 
general,  they  were  confessed  and  regretted  from  week  to 
week.  But  there  were  scandalous  sins  which  implied  a 
deliberate  revolt  from  Christ's  rules,  or  a  conspicuous  fall, 
under  prevailing  temptation,  from  the  standard  which 
Christians  were  bound  to  maintain.  In  such  cases,  both  for 
the  sake  of  the  sinner  himself,  and  also  for  the  sake  of 
maintaining  in  the  society  the  cherished  conception  of  their 
common  calling,  it  was  needful  that  the  sinner  should  be 
taught,  and  that  he  should  own,  how  he  had  separated  him- 
self from  his  Master  and  his  brethren  ;  and  it  was  needful 
that  the  Church  should  have  some  ground  to  believe  in  the 
seriousness  and  sincerity  of  repentance  before  proceeding  to 
restoration. 

Early  in  the  second  century  a  strong  disposition  existed 

249 


250  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

to  refuse  restoration  in  the  case  of  scandalous  sins  com- 
mitted by  Christians.  Murder,  sins  of  impurity,  and 
apostasy,  or  lapse  into  idolatry,  were  chiefly  in  view.  The 
practice  thus  advocated  was  based  upon  the  theory  that 
"  one  repentance  "  was  expressly  sanctioned  with  a  view  to 
forgiveness  and  Christian  standing — that,  namely,  which  is 
sealed  in  baptism ;  no  second  repentance  is  provided  for, 
nor  is  the  Church  authorised  to  accept  it.  It  was  admitted 
(usually  or  always)  that  persons  so  situated,  if  they  continued 
penitent  to  their  life's  end,  should  be  encouraged  to  hope  for 
eventual  forgiveness  at  the  hand  of  God ;  but  they  had  lost 
their  standing  in  the  earthly  fellowship.  A  high  moral 
enthusiasm  and  a  resolute  purpose  to  defend  the  purity 
of  the  Church  inspired  this  practice.  At  the  same  time, 
many  cases  must  have  occurred,  leading  men  to  question  the 
fitness  of  so  stern  a  rule ;  and  most  likely  the  practice  of 
different  churches  always  varied  in  some  degree,  but  with  a 
leaning  on  the  whole  to  severity.  Hermas  (Vis.  ii.  2) 
announces  a  second  repentance — i.e.  one  after  the  baptismal 
one — as  open;  but  he  connects  it  apparently  with  the 
special  circumstances, — the  dispensation  was  about  to  close, 
and  this  exceptional  door  was  opened  by  the  Lord  on  that 
account.  In  this,  as  in  other  matters,  the  Montanists 
appeared  on  behalf  of  the  stricter  view  of  the  Church's 
traditions  and  practice.  But  at  the  end  of  the  second 
century  the  advocacy  of  that  view  was  certainly  not 
confined  to  them.  On  the  other  hand,  Dionysius  of  Corinth 
(Eouth,  Bel.  Sac.  i.),  writing  to  the  Amastrian  church, 
exhorts  them  to  receive  penitents  returning  from  falls  of 
any  kind. 

The  reception  of  such  penitents,  however,  even  where 
it  was  in  use,  was  regarded  as  something  remarkable  and 
difficult.  It  had  to  be  sought  by  confession  before  the 
church,  enforced  by  humiliation  and  supplication,  which 
continued  for  some  time,  and  was  regarded  as  a  satis- 
faction to  the  congregation  and  also  to  God.  The  restora- 
tion was,  or  came  to  be,  by  stages,  which  towards  the 
end  of  the  period  appear  as  four :  the  penitents  take  their 


180-313]  DISCIPLINE   AND   SCHISMS  251 

place,  first,  as  TrpoaKkalovje^y  JlcnteSy  or  y^eifid^ovTef;,  in 
the  court  before  the  door  of  the  church,  beseeching  those 
who  enter  to  pity  them  and  support  their  application; 
second,  as  aKpocofievoi,  audientes,  allowed  to  be  present  in  a 
remote  part  of  the  church  at  the  earlier  part  of  the  service 
to  hear  Scripture  and  sermon ;  third,  as  uTroTrtTTToi/Te?,  sub- 
strati,  who  took  part  in  the  whole  service  to  which  cate- 
chumens were  admitted,  kneeling  at  the  prayers;  fourth, 
as  avi'LardfjievoL,  consistentes,  who  witnessed,  standing,  the 
administration  of  the  eucharist,  though  not  themselves  par- 
ticipating. After  this  came  formal  restoration  by  imposition 
of  the  bishop's  hands,  the  kiss  of  peace,  and  participation  of 
the  eucharist  with  the  brethren.  From  various  notices  (e.g. 
canons  of  Ancyra,  A.D.  314,  and  Nice,  a.d.  325)  it  appears 
that  several  years,  as  a  rule,  might  be  spent  in  the  three 
latter  stages.  But  some  discretion  was  left  to  the  bishops. 
And  while  these  prolonged  exercises  of  penitence  might  be 
held  up  as  the  ideal,  one  acquires  the  impression  that  in 
various  special  circumstances  the  process  was  very  greatly 
abridged.  In  particular,  the  intercession  of  confessors 
(Christians  undergoing  suffering  for  their  faith)  was  allowed 
to  operate  on  the  side  of  leniency. 

Early  in  the  third  century  Callistus  of  Eome  (a.d.  218— 
223)  sanctioned  principles  which  many  reckoned  lax,  both 
in  regard  to  some  moral  questions  and  also  in  regard  to 
receiving  to  penitence  persons  guilty  of  sins  of  impurity. 
Hippolytus  opposed  him  (Be/,  ix.  12)^  on  this  as  well  as 
on  doctrinal  points,  and  a  schism  appears  to  have  arisen  in 
the  Eoman  church.  That  passed  away,  however,  and  the 
milder  practice  remained  in  force  at  Eome. 

Some  years  after  this  the  Decian  persecution  gave  occa- 
sion to  lively  discussion  of  the  Church's  duty  to  the  fallen. 
The  circumstances  have  been  referred  to  in  the  notice  of 
Cyprian  (p.  191).  The  immense  number  of  the  lapsed 
rendered  the  question  very  important :  it  also  created  a  great 
pressure  in  favour  of  laxity,  since  not  only  the  fallen,  but 

*  Origen  also  apparently  {de  Orat.  viiL  10).     TertuUian,  as  a  Montanist, 
energetically  denounced  the  laxity. 


252       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLtC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

doubtless  also  many  of  their  friends,  desired  easy  terms  of 
restoration.  But  there  was  another  complication.  Cyprian's 
elevation  to  the  bishopric  of  Carthage  (a.d.  248)  had  been 
opposed  by  five  presbyters,  who  thereafter  ordained  a  deacon 
by  their  own  authority,  and  set  themselves  to  embarrass  the 
action  of  the  bishop :  this  led  to  their  being  excluded  by 
Cyprian  from  church  fellowship.  Elements  of  controversy 
were  therefore  already  present :  and  when  the  persecution 
was  running  its  course,  fresh  matter  of  dispute  was  furnished 
by  the  confessors,  who  were  moved  to  issue  lihelli  pacis,  certi- 
ficates of  restoration,  sometimes  in  very  wholesale  terms ;  ^ 
and  Cyprian  speaks  of  thousands  of  such  certificates  issuing 
daily  (Ep.  20).  The  African  Christianity  was  very  respons- 
ive to  influences  of  this  kind.  According  to  Cyprian,  there 
was  something  like  a  popular  uprising  throughout  the  pro- 
vince to  constrain  the  guides  of  the  churches  to  give  way 
(Ep.  27.  3).  Cyprian  seems  to  have  leant  originally  to  the 
severer  principle  in  cases  of  this  kind.  But  first  of  all  he 
insisted  on  delay  until  the  churches  with  their  bishops  and 
clergy  could  deliberately  examine  the  cases  and  make  the 
requisite  discriminations ;  ^  later,  he  conceded  that  in  case  of 
apparent  approach  of  death,  the  confessions  of  persons  recom- 
mended by  confessors  might  be  received  by  presbyters  or 
deacons,  who  should  administer  the  eucharist  to  the  penitents. 
Next,  penitent  libellatici  (see  p.  143,  n.  2),  as  the  less  flagrant 
offenders,  were  readmitted.  And,  finally,  the  general  restora- 
tion of  the  fallen,  who  were  penitent,  was  authorised  by  a 
Synod  (a.d.  252,  Cyp.  Up.  57),  partly  on  the  ground  that 
fresh  persecution  seemed  impending,  and  it  was  desirable 
to  give  every  encouragement  to  those  who  by  fidelity  in  a 
new  trial  might  still  be  enabled  to  retrieve  their  former  fall. 
Cyprian's  principle  on  the  whole,  therefore,  was  eventual 
restoration,  but  not  without  serious  discipline,  and  pro- 
longed evidence  of  penitence.  In  all  these  steps  Cyprian 
was  able   to  carry   with   him    the    bishops  of   the   African 

^  Oommunicet  ille  cum  suis,  Cyprian,  U}).  14.     A  universal  form,  ^p.  23. 
2  This  he  contemplates  as  taking  place  at  a  meeting  of  the  church,  ex- 
pressly including  the  laity. 


180-313]  DISCIPLINE   AND    SCHISMS  253 

province,  and  also  the  clergy  and  confessors  of  the  church 
of  Eonie,^ 

Out  of  this  controversy  a  shortlived  schism  arose  at 
Carthage  under  a  counter-bishop,  the  dissidents  being  on  the 
side  of  more  lenient  treatment  of  the  fallen.^  A  more  dur- 
able division  took  place  at  Eome  in  the  opposite  interest. 

After  the  martyrdom  of  Fabian,  bishop  of  Eome,  A.D. 
249,  the  chair  had  remained  vacant  for  a  year  and  a  half, 
and  the  presbyters  had  dealt  with  the  necessary  business  of 
the  church.  Among  these  presbyters,  a  distinguished  place 
was  held  by  Novatian,  a  man  in  high  repute,  some  of  whose 
writings  are  still  extant.  Official  letters  from  Eome  to 
Cyprian  had  been  penned  by  him,  and  he  was  a  party 
to  the  approbation  accorded  by  Eome  to  Cyprian's  measures. 
Novatian  was  put  in  nomination  for  the  bishopric,  but  his 
party  proved  to  be  in  a  minority,  and  in  A.D.  251  Cornelius 
was  elected.  Novatian's  supporters  were  of  the  more  rigid 
party,  and  they  brought  accusations  of  laxity  against  Cor- 
nelius :  he  had  held  fellowship,  they  said,  with  fallen  bishops, 
and  had  received  the  unworthy  to  communion  from  inter- 
^  ested  motives.  This  party  had  influential  confessors  on 
their  side,  and  they  set  up  Novatian  as  counter-bishop 
agaiQst  Cornelius.  Cornelius  excommunicated  them,  and 
laid  down  the  principle  that  all  sorts  of  fallen  persons 
should  be  received  to  penitence,  of  course  with  proper 
precautions.  Novatian  and  his  followers,  on  their  side,  fell 
back  on  the  principle  that  none  of  those  who  after  baptism 
fell  into  the  great  acts  of  sin,  regarded  as  deadly,  ought  to 
be  restored  to  communion ;  to  do  so  was  to  usurp  God's  pre- 
rogative and  imperil  the  glory  of  the  Church.  Such  persons 
are  to  be  commended  to  the  divine  mercy,  which  they  may 
still  receive,  but  the  Church  is  not  authorised  to  readmit 
them.  Among  those  who  joined  Novatian  was  Novatus, 
a  leading  person  among  the  presbyters  who  had  opposed 
Cyprian   at    Carthage.      In  joining  Novatian,  he  went  from 

^  The  see  of  Rome  was  vacant  for  part  of  the  time,  but  the  presbyters 
siguified  their  approbation  of  Cyprian's  line  of  action. 

*  The  leader  was  Felicissimus,  a  deacon,  and  Forttmatus  was  the  bishop. 


264       THE  AKCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a..d. 

one  extreme  to  the  other.  But  Novatian  soon  lost  the 
support  of  the  more  influential  Eoman  confessors.  Cyprian 
also  promptly  acknowledged  Cornelius,  and  supported  him 
energetically.  Some  bishops  countenanced  Novatian ;  Fabius 
of  Antioch  and  Marcion  of  Aries  were  the  most  important ; 
and  Novatian  congregations  sprang  up  in  many  parts  of 
the  Church.  They  had  the  reputation  during  subsequent 
discussions  of  being  generally  on  the  side  of  orthodoxy,  and 
they  continued  to  exist  for  some  centuries.^ 

The  same  principles,  or  principles  nearly  as  severe,  con- 
tinued to  be  cherished  by  many  who  did  not  feel  it  necessary 
to  join  the  Novatians,  and  in  some  branches  of  the  Church 
sins  were  specified  which  were  too  grievous  to  admit  of 
restoration  even  on  deathbed.  In  the  church  of  Kome 
itself  fresh  troubles  broke  out  during  the  bishoprics  of 
Marcellus  and  Eusebius  (a.d.  307  foL),  the  leader  of  opposi- 
tion being  one  Heraclius ;  but  this  time  the  Eoman  authori- 
ties seem  to  have  been  opposed  by  a  party  which  desired  to 
reduce  discipline  to  a  nullity.^  During  the  Diocletian 
persecution,  Peter,  the  bishop  of  Alexandria,  laid  down  rules 
which  contemplated  restoration  of  the  fallen  under  careful 
conditions  as  to  due  manifestation  of  penitence.^ 

In  more  than  one  of  these  debates  personal  antagonism, 
or  jealousy,  was  the  motive  of  division.  But  sensitiveness 
on  the  question  of  discipline,  involving  the  purity  of  the 
Church  on  the  one  hand  and  compassion  to  penitents  on 
the  other,  furnished  the  pretext  on  which  popular  parties 
were  formed.  On  this  subject  men  really  felt  strongly,  and 
BO  could  be  induced  to  take  decided  action. 

It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  while  the  party  which 
condemned  the  admission  of  post-baptismal  repentance  seems 
at  first  sight  stern  and  pitiless,  they  are  the  party  which 

*  In  the  East  called  Kadapoi,  which  was  the  name  they  preferred. 

*  This  is  the  usual  interpretation  of  the  inscription  in  the  catacombs  ;  but 
a  quite  opposite  interpretation  is  possible. 

'  The  schism  of  Meletius,  bishop  of  Lycopolis,  who  took  upon  him  to 
usurp  the  power  of  the  Alexandrian  bishop  (a.d.  306),  seems  to  have  found  a 
pretext  in  these  matters  of  discipline  ;  but  no  dear  contrast  of  principles  was 
evolved. 


180-313]  HERETICAL   BAPTISM  255 

more  fully  recognises  the  distinction  between  the  Church's 
function  and  the  Lord's.  According  to  them  the  Churcli 
either  had  no  power  to  restore,  or  was  restrained  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  from  exerting  it,  in  the  cases  which  were  in 
question ;  but  the  hope  of  salvation  to  the  penitent,  even  in 
this  painful  exclusion,  was  proclaimed.  On  the  other  side, 
the  admission  of  the  penitent  to  Church  privileges  was 
associated  with  the  belief  that  in  this  way  they  were  brought 
again  into  the  position,  and  under  the  influences  (not,  indeed, 
which  would  secure  salvation),  but  without  which  salvation 
is  not  ordinarily  possible. 

The  schism  of  Donatus  in  Africa  will  be  noticed  under 
next  period. 

Heretical  Baptism 

Cyprian,  de  Umtate  and  Epp.  70-75 ;  on  the  other  side,  de  Rehaptismoy 
among  the  works  of  Cyprian.  Benson,  Life  of  Cyprian^  Lond.  1898, 
and  article  in  Bid.  of  Christian  Biography y  voL  L 

Closely  connected  with  the  discussions  just  referred  to 
is  that  which  arose  regarding  the  baptism  of  heretics,  and 
therefore  it  may  be  referred  to  here. 

It  has  been  matter  of  general  agreement,  that  baptism 
is  an  ordinance  which  ought  to  be  administered  only  once 
in  the  history  of  a  disciple.  Cases,  indeed,  may  be  suggested 
in  which  it  can  be  plausibly  urged  that  a  second  or  supple- 
mentary baptism  might  be  reasonable.  But  these  plausi- 
bilities have  not  been  allowed  to  disturb  the  rule  that  the 
impressive  uniqueness  of  baptism,  as  standing,  once  for  all, 
at  the  outset  of  proposed  discipleship,  must  be  maintained. 
The  one  baptism,  however,  must  be  real  baptism.  And  so 
the  question  what  should  be  taken  for  real  baptism  has  to 
be  dealt  with. 

With  the  deepening  impression  of  the  unity  of  the 
Church,  and  of  her  function  as  alone  possessing  the 
ministrations  and  alone  constituting  the  fellowship  through 
which  we  have  life,  it  was  easy  to  infer  that  no  Christian 
ordinance    could    be    authentic    or   valid    unless    it    wa8 


256  THE   ANCIENT    CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

administered  by  her  authority,  and  reached  the  individual 
through  her  ministers.  The  tendency,  in  fact,  was  all  this 
way;  yet  in  regard  to  baptism  the  application  of  this  prin- 
ciple became  debatable. 

When  sects,  heretical  and  schismatical,  formed  them- 
selves, as  they  did  in  the  second  century,  all  or  most  of 
them  administered  baptism,  though  some  varied  the  form 
of  the  rite.  Sooner  or  later  some  persons  so  baptized 
joined  the  greater  Church,  doing  so,  no  doubt,  as  Chris- 
tians who  saw  reason  to  exchange  what  they  now  regarded 
as  a  less  satisfactory  form  of  Christianity  for  one  more 
perfect  or  more  authentic.  Some  of  these  sects  differed 
less  from  catholic  Christianity  and  some  more ;  and  it 
does  not  seem  likely  that  any  one  rule  could  have  at 
once  obtained  as  to  the  recognition  which  (Christianity 
so  initiated  was  to  receive.  It  seems  most  likely  that 
persons  who  came  over  in  such  circumstances  were  wel- 
comed as  Christians  who  needed  to  be  taught  the  way  of 
the  Lord  more  perfectly,  and  that  no  question  was  raised 
about  their  baptism,  unless  some  known  peculiarity  in  the 
ceremony,  or  in  the  words  used,  rendered  it  specifically 
questionable.  But  a  stronger  view  of  the  nullity  of  heretical 
baptism  had  developed  itself  by  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
and  had  formed  the  practice  in  some  churches,  while 
others  opposed  it. 

In  these  circumstances  Cyprian's  whole  influence  was 
directed  to  secure  uniformity,  at  least  in  Africa.  He  had 
developed  energetically  the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the 
Church.  He  maintained  that  as  the  Church,  which  is  cath- 
olic, distinguished  from  all  dissidents,  is  alone  the  authentic 
fellowship  of  salvation,  and  in  it  alone  Christian  benefits 
are  enjoyed ;  therefore  any  Christianity  professed  outside  of 
it  is  spurious  and  null,  and  any  Christian  rites  professedly 
administered  outside  of  it  are  also  null.  This  was  applied 
even  to  orthodox  sects  like  the  Novatians.  •  The  administra- 
tions of  such  separatists  are  an  offensive  mimicry.  Baptism 
in  their  case  is  no  baptism,  the  eucharist  is  no  eucharist, 
martyrdom    is  no   martyrdom.       It   followed  that  persons 


180-313]  HERETICAL   BAPTISM  257 

coming  from  such  sects  ^  to  the  Catholic  Church  were  really 
for  all  Christian  purposes  unbaptized,  and  must  now  be 
baptized  again.  The  question  of  baptism  was  the  important 
one.  There  was  no  need  to  discuss  the  value  of  the 
eucharist,  as  received  in  a  heretical  or  schismatic  sect,  be- 
cause henceforth  the  convert  would  receive  it  in  the  catholic 
way.  But  if  baptism  was  not  readministered,  the  Church 
would  acknowledge  the  convert  to  be  baptized  already,  i.e. 
would  concede  that  the  heretical  baptism  was  baptism. 
Cyprian  of  Carthage  and  Stephen  of  Eome  took  sides 
against  one  another  on  this  point. 

Cyprian  appealed  to  the  tradition  of  his  church,  for  it 
was  important  to  maintain  that  the  practice  had  been  so 
from  the  beginning.  He  refers  to  a  council  held  by 
Agrippinus,2  a  predecessor  at  Carthage,  which  sanctioned 
his  view, — although  this  seems  to  imply  diversity  of  prac- 
tice as  even  then  existing.^  Apparently  Callistus  of  Eome 
(218-223)  had  sanctioned  rebaptism;  but  contrary  to  the 
tradition  of  his  church,  as  Hippolytus  maintains  (Bef.  ix. 
12).  It  seems  certain,  however,  that  rebaptizing  obtained 
in  Cappadocia  and  neighbouring  regions,  and  it  was  sanc- 
tioned as  ancient  practice  by  synods  at  Synnada  and 
Iconium  (perhaps  before  A.D.  236).  Meanwhile  an  opposite 
practice  was  in  use,  certainly  at  Eome,  and,  no  doubt,  in 
many  other  churches.  Cypriaij  himself  seems  conscious 
that  his  argument  from  tradition  and  history  is  not  con- 
clusive ;  his  main  strength  is  in  his  church  theory. 

Those  who  took  the  other  side  regarded  baptism, 
though  administered  by  heretical  hands,  as  substantially 
valid,  requiring  only  to  be  completed  by  accession  to  the 
authentic  Church.     Such  accession   took  place  by  the  con- 

^  I.e.  baptized  in  them.  Perverts  baptized  in  the  Catholic  Church,  carried 
away  by  heresy,  and  afterwards  returning,  had  been  truly  baptized,  and  so 
needed  only  to  be  received  as  penitents. 

2  Date  uncertain,  a.d.  180  ?  215  ? 

*  Augustine  suggests  that  Agrippinus  and  his  council  introduced  the 
practice  of  rebaptizing  those  who  had  been  baptized  in  heresy.  But  that 
view  is  probably  an  inference  from  what  Augustine  believed,  rather  than  a 
£&ct  resting  on  evidence, 

I? 


258       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

fession  and  submission  of  the  convert,  and  the  imposition 
of  the  bishop's  hands.^  Cyprian  did  not  believe  that  the 
difference  afforded  a  ground  for  breaking  off  communion 
between  bishops.  But  it  seemed  to  him  so  important  in 
connection  with  church  principles,  that  he  felt  justified 
in  doing  his  utmost  to  maintain  it. 

Cyprian's  case  is  summed  up  in  the  treatise  de  Unitate, 
composed  before  this  dispute  broke  out  (c.  11):  "They 
suppose  that  they  baptize,  although  there  can  be  no  baptism 
but  the  one ;  when  they  have  forsaken  the  fountain  of  life, 
they  offer  the  grace  of  the  living  and  saving  water.  In  their 
hands  men  are  not  cleansed  but  rather  defiled ;  their  sins  are 
not  purged,  but  rather  heaped  up.  That  kind  of  nativity 
generates  children  not  to  God  but  to  the  devil.  Those 
who  are  brought  forth  from  unbelief  lose  the  grace  of  faith ; 
those  cannot  come  to  the  rewards  of  peace  who  have  broken 
the  peace  of  God  by  the  fury  of  discord."  Besides  arguing 
in  general  from  the  doctrine  of  the  unity,  he  maintained 
(Ep.  72.  1,  73.  7)  that  baptism,  as  it  includes  forgiveness 
of  sins,  was  granted  by  our  Lord  to  Peter  on  behalf  of  the 
episcopate  and  those  in  union  with  them,  was  therefore 
valid  only  as  administered  with  their  sanction.  Eeasoning 
ad  hominem,  he  pointed  to  the  admission  of  his  opponents, 
that  in  the  cases  debated,  the  imposition  of  the  bishop's 
hands  was  needful ;  but  that  meant  the  communication  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  If  the  Holy  Spirit  had  been  lacking  from 
the  heretical  baptism,  how  could  it  be  baptism  at  all  ?  It 
might  be  a  kind  of  external  judaical  ceremony ;  but  that 
was  all.  It  was  argued  on  the  other  side,  that  the  faith  pro- 
fessed at  such  baptisms  might  be  that  of  the  Church.  But 
this  was  not  sufficient ;  besides,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was 
doubtful.  In  cases  where  the  baptism  was  merely  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  could  be  sure  what  the  faith 
was  ?  Finally,  the  argument  from  history  or  usage,  and 
from  the  consistencies  of   church  practice  in  dealing  with 

'  This  was  a  rite  applied  in  many  ways  ;  in  all  its  applications  it  signified 
the  Church's  recognition  of  the  candidate's  purpose,  ^nd  her  benediction  in 
coiinection  with  it* 


180-313]  HERETICAL   BAPTISM  259 

the  array  of  conceivable  cases,  was  handled  by  Cyprian  with 
great  energy,  strength,  and  effect. 

Stephen,  who  succeeded  Cornelius  at  Eome,  upheld  the 
practice  of  his  church,  and  strove  to  impose  it  on  others. 
He  sent  letters  to  the  East  threatening  to  break  communion 
with  those  who  should  persist  in  rebaptizing,  and  he  neces- 
sarily came  into  collision  with  Cyprian  on  the  subject. 
Possibly  Stephen  was  willing  to  find  a  pretext  for  doing 
80.  The  influence  of  Cyprian  was  becoming  extraordinarily 
great,  and  in  his  letters  to  Eome  his  tone  of  friendly  inde- 
pendence and  of  plain-spoken  counsel,  verging  on  injunction, 
could  hardly  be  welcome.  Cornelius  had  owed  too  much 
to  Cyprian  for  vigorous  support  against  Novatian,  to  be 
willing  to  break  with  him ;  but  Stephen  may  have  thought 
the  time  was  come  to  make  a  stand,  and  to  reduce  the 
African  bishop  to  his  proper  place.  Stephen  maintained 
that  he  had  on  his  side  ancient  custom — especially  the 
tradition  of  Peter's  see,  which  ought  certainly  to  prevail. 
He  referred  also  to  Paul's  rejoicing  in  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel,  even  if  preached  through  envy.  The  main  position 
was  that  the  efficacy  of  the  one  baptism  depends  not  on 
the  administrators,  but  on  the  institution  of  Christ.  Those 
who  are  baptized  in  the  name  of  Christ,  even  by  heretics, 
have  been  validly  baptized,  and  ought  not  to  be  baptized 
again. 

On  the  principles  then  received  it  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that  Cyprian  had  the  better  argument.  For  both  sides 
admitted  the  theory  of  church  unity  which  Cyprian  ex- 
pounded. And  if  the  principle  is  to  be  admitted  in  regard 
to  church  institutions  that  the  institution  is  Christ's  whoever 
may  administer  it,  then  it  cannot  be  confined  to  baptism ;  it 
must  be  extended  to  all  those  institutions,  those  sacraments 
as  Eome  reckons  tliem, — confirmation  and  orders,  as  well  as 
eucharist, — to  which  Eomanism  declines  to  apply  it.^  Arch- 
bishop Benson  points  out  that,  according  to  Cyprian,  the  visible 

^  The  arguments  by  which  a  distinction  between  baptism  and  other  sacra- 
ments is  supported  may  be  seen,  inter  alia,  in  Hefele,  Condliengeschichie, 
i,  105. 


260       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d 

Church  includes  the  worst  moral  sinner,  in  expectation  of  his 
penitency,  but  excludes  the  most  virtuous  and  orthodox 
baptized  Christian  who  had  not  been  baptized  by  a  catholic 
minister.^  This  is  not  quite  accurate.  But  apart  from  that, 
Cyprian  had  a  right  to  ask,  Was  the  virtuous  person  baptized  ? 
just  as  the  archbishop  claimed  the  right  to  ask  in  regard 
to  the  most  virtuous  dissenting  minister,  Was  he  ordained  ? 

But  it  was  a  happy  inconsistency  which  the  Koman 
tradition  in  this  case  carried  down  into  the  principles  and 
practice  of  the  later  Church ;  and  it  proved  to  be  possible  to 
theorise  it,  without  sacrificing  the  exclusive  attitude  towards 
heretics  and  schismatics  on  which  both  sides  laid  so  much 
stress. 

The  dispute  was  hot  while  it  lasted.  Stephen  denounced 
Cyprian  as  a  false  Christ,  a  false  apostle,  and  a  deceitful 
worker ;  while  Cyprian  referred  to  his  opponents  as  aiding 
Antichrists ;  and  Firmihan  of  Caesarea,  making  common  cause 
with  Cyprian,  told  Stephen  that  in  trying  to  cut  off  others 
from  the  Church's  unity,  he  had  cut  off  himself.  Dionysius 
of  Alexandria  meanwhile  exerted  himself  to  bring  about 
mutual  toleration  (Euseb.  Hist.  Ecd.  vii.  5). 

At  this  stage  the  opposing  theories  were  boldly  and 
roundly  asserted;  Cyprian  was  for  rebaptizing  the  disciple 
even  of  the  most  orthodox  schismatic  sect;  and  Stephen, 
apparently,  was  against  rebaptizing  the  disciple  even  of  the 
most  heterodox,  and  was  prepared  to  accept  baptism  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  without  reference  to  the  Trinity.  After 
the  death  of  Stephen  the  conflict  died  out,  each  church 
maintaining  its  own  custom.  But  probably  the  weight  of 
authoritative  practice  was  already  against  rebaptizing. 
Moreover,  cases  differed,  and  in  many  cases  the  maintenance 
of  the  principle  that  the  man  proposing  to  come  over  to 
orthodoxy  was  still  unbaptized,  offended  against  common 
sense.  The  Eoman  view  gained  the  day,  but  with  slight 
modifications.  The  synod  of  Aries  (a.d.  314)  decided  that 
baptism  in  heresy  should  be  recognised,  if  it  appeared  that 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  were  owned  in  the  administra- 

^  Smith,  Did.  of  Christian  Biography ^  L  752, 


180-313]  HERETICAL    BAPTISM  261 

tion.  The  great  council  of  Nicea,  however,^  seemed  to 
sanction  a  construction  of  this  decision  which  questioned 
the  validity  of  baptism  in  the  case  of  sects  regarded  as 
unsound  with  respect  to  the  Trinity,  even  though  the  formula 
prescribed  in  Matt,  xxviii.  had  been  used  in  the  administra- 
tion. With  this  qualification,  the  exact  amount  of  which  is 
debatable,  the  practice  advocated  by  Stephen  was  ultimately 
acquiesced  in  by  the  Church. 

^  Canon  19. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

Manicheism 

I.  de  Beausobre,  Hist.  crit.  de  ManicMe  et  du  ManicMisme^  Amst.  1734. 
Flugel,  ilfam,  Leipz.  1862. 

While  the  Christian  religion  was  settling  itself  on  fixed 
lines,  the  problem  of  the  world  and  of  human  life  was  sug- 
gesting new  efforts  of  religion-building.  Manicheism  took 
origin  in  the  third  century.  This  form  of  dualism  did  not 
seriously  affect  the  Christianity  of  the  empire  until  the 
fourth  century ;  from  that  time  it  appears  and  reappears, 
though  carefully  suppressed  by  Church  and  State  whenever 
it  became  visible.  Properly  speaking,  it  was  not  a  Chris- 
tian heresy,  but  an  extra- Christian  religion.  Yet  some 
appropriation  of  the  name  and  the  institutions  of  Jesus 
entered  into  the  scheme  of  Mani  himself ;  and  this  element 
may  have  been  expanded  in  the  hands  of  his  disciples,  as 
Manicheism  moved  westwards,  and  made  its  appeal  to  the 
Christians  of  the  Eoman  world. 

Mani  (or  Manes)  was  a  Persian,  born  about  A.D.  216. 
He  found  Parsism  in  power,  as  the  popular  and  the  State 
religion.  Mani  appears  also  to  have  inherited  from  his 
father  some  ideas  which  traced  up  to  materialistic  and 
magical  elements  of  Babylonian  idolatry;  and  elements  of 
Buddhism  have  been  recognised  in  his  system,  connected, 
doubtless,  with  the  journeys  in  far  eastern  regions  which 
he  is  said  to  have  undertaken.  He  felt  in  himself  the 
impulse  to  take  ground  as  a  religious  innovator.  Like 
Mahomed  afterwards,  he  claimed  to  be  the  last  and  greatest 
prophet,  and  he  sent  forth  emissaries  to  preach  in  his  name. 


A.D.  180-313]  MANICHEISM  263 

Eventually  he  returned  to  Persia  and  aimed  at  great  things 
there ;  but  religious  antipathies  and  political  suspicions 
became  too  strong  for  him,  and  sometime  after  272  he  was 
cruelly  put  to  death.  His  disciples  also  were  bitterly  per- 
secuted. But  the  man  had  impressed  his  followers,  and 
his  ways  of  thinking  could  appeal  with  force  to  many 
minds.  Manicheism  was  nowhere  adopted  as  a  national 
faith,  or  as  the  characteristic  religion  of  a  race.  But  as  a 
sect,  it  maintained  a  prolonged  existence  in  the  East,  having 
its  centre  at  Babylon  and  afterwards  at  Samarcand,  and 
stretching  out  to  India  and  China. 

Manicheism  appeared  in  the  Eoman  Empire  before  the 
close  of  the  third  century,  and  created  active  discussion 
during  the  fourth.  It  made  itself  known  as  an  ascetic 
religion  resting  on  divine  revelation,  claiming  to  embody 
the  true  view  of  the  universe,  and  the  true  securities  for 
human  welfare  in  a  future  life.  Further,  it  professed  to 
embody  a  corrected  Christianity,  which  it  naturally  claimed 
to  complete  as  well  as  to  purify.  Hence  it  appealed  to 
passages  in  the  Gospels  and  Epistles;  but  it  regarded  all 
these  as  more  or  less  corrupted.  The  canonical  books  of 
the  sect  were  certain  writings  of  Mani.  The  recognised 
officials  were  (1)  teachers  (twelve,  apparently,  to  corre- 
spond with  the  apostles — one  of  whom  might  specially 
represent  Mani);  (2)  bishops  (seventy -two  according  to 
Augustine);  and  (3)  presbyters.  The  adherents  of  the 
sect  fell  into  two  classes,  electi  and  auditores.  The  elect 
abstained  from  animal  food  and  wine,  from  material  occupa- 
tions and  labours,  and  from  marriage ;  they  might  not  injure 
even  plant  life,  and  therefore  their  vegetable  food  must  not 
be  gathered  by  their  own  hands,  but  be  supplied  to  them 
by  the  auditores,  and  they  were  bound  to  frequent  and 
rigorous  fasting.  The  auditores,  who  were  imperfect  mem- 
bers, might  engage  in  the  ordinary  relations  and  occupations 
of  society ;  but  in  addition  to  the  observance  of  moral  rules, 
were  expected  to  put  no  animal  to  death,  to  prefer  a 
simple  and  retired  life,  and  to  provide  for  the  wants  of  the 
elect,  and  pay  them  great  respect.     The  intercession  of  the 


264       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

elect  was  supposed  to  avail  vicariously  for  the  welfare  of 
the  comparatively  imperfect  auditores.  Augustine  was  led 
to  suspect  that  a  good  deal  of  hypocrisy  and  make-believe 
existed  among  the  Manichean  elect,  and  he  mentions  cir- 
cumstances which  had  produced  that  impression.  But  in- 
consistency might  exist  in  some  degree,  and  still  more  it 
might  be  imputed  by  opponents,  without  supplying  any  good 
ground  for  doubting  the  sincerity  and  earnestness  of  the 
sect  in  general. 

There  could  be  no  great  show  of  external  evidence  for 
Mani*s  claims  to  be  a  medium  of  revelation.  The  sect 
must  have  made  way,  therefore,  on  the  strength  either  of 
its  theory  of  the  universe,  which  might  be  reckoned  credible 
and  impressive,  or  of  its  system  of  life  and  worship,  which 
might  be  accepted  as  worthy  and  helpful. 

The  force  with  which  the  conception  of  the  world,  as  the 
scene  of  conflict  between  two  originally  opposed  and  irrecon- 
cilable principles,  is  able  at  some  times  to  lay  hold  of  the 
minds  of  men,  has  here  one  more  illustration.  The  life 
enjoined  on  his  followers  by  Mani  was  based  on  a  system  of 
dualism,  fanciful  in  its  details,  but  possessing  some  important 
distinctive  features.  It  differed  from  the  system  of  Zoroaster 
in  a  more  intense  conception  of  the  entanglement  in  evil  in 
which  human  spirits  are  involved,  and  also  in  the  stress  it 
laid  upon  a  redemptive  process,  and  a  life  conformed  to  that 
process.  From  Christianity  it  differed,  not  merely  in  its 
dualism,  but  especially  in  the  demand  it  made,  that  the 
elements  of  evil  in  the  world  should  be  fixed  as  concrete 
material  things,  and  should  be  precisely  named  and  num- 
bered. Then  the  true  life  must  shape  itself  in  opposition  to 
these  things,  and  by  deliverance  from  them.  Anything  less 
concrete  and  less  material  than  this  would  have  seemed  to 
Mani  unreal,  missing  the  substantial  and  going  astray  among 
shadows.  Yet  along  with  this  he  enjoined  the  usual  moral- 
ities, mostly  in  the  negative  form. 

Good  and  evil,  in  this  system,  are  identified  with  light 
and  darkness,  also  with  purer  and  more  impure  substance. 

The  kingdom  of  light  and  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  each 


180-313]  MANICHEISM  265 

with  its  personal  king,  stand  over  against  one  another.  A 
time  arrives  when  the  kingdom  of  darkness  makes  its  effort 
against  the  kingdom  of  light.  The  first  man,  who  is  God's 
firstborn,  leads  the  five  pure  elements  into  war  against  the 
powers  of  evil ;  he  is  overthrown,  but  eventually  delivered  ; 
yet  a  part  of  his  light  has  been  carried  off  captive  by  the 
darkness.  With  a  view  to  extricate  this  captive  nature,  the 
God  of  light  causes  the  universe  we  know  to  be  organised. 
The  object  of  its  living  processes,  at  least  of  its  plant  life,  is  to 
afford  channels  by  which  the  captive  element  may  physically 
make  its  escape  from  the  elements  of  darkness  which  detain 
it.  Along  the  zodiac  the  particles  of  light,  as  they  escape, 
reach  the  sun  and  moon,  where  they  are  purified  and  passed 
on  to  their  proper  home.  The  sun  is  the  dwelHng  of  the 
first  man  (Jesus  impatihilis) ;  the  moon,  of  the  mother  of  life, 
through  whom  he  came  into  existence.  And  those  two 
luminaries  are  ships  which,  moving  in  the  sky,  carry  on  the 
processes  of  redemption.  Against  all  this  the  Prince  of 
darkness  creates  man,  in  whom  the  captive  element  of  light, 
so  far  as  available,  is  concentrated,  but  fatally  entangled 
with  sensuality,  covetousness,  and  sin;  so  that  every  man 
may  be  regarded  as  having  a  soul  that  is  akin  to  goodness, 
but  also  an  evil  one.  Generation  expresses  the  line  along 
which  the  Prince  of  darkness  would  have  evil  triumph  in 
human  history.  But  the  powers  of  light  join  battle  on  this 
arena  of  human  history  and  character,  so  that  here  the 
moral  element  comes  in.  In  addition  to  mere  physical 
processes  by  which  light  is  either  held  captive  or  is  emanci- 
pated, human  thought  and  choice  now  come  into  play ;  the 
unconscious  world-process  has  added  to  it  the  element  of 
conscious  effort ;  but  largely  in  the  way  of  calling  men  to 
recognise  the  proper  physical  distinctions,  and  to  give  effect 
to  them.  Prophets  also  have  appeared  in  the  world,  to  do 
the  work  of  the  kingdom  of  light ;  but  not  Moses  and  the 
Jewish  prophets ;  for  Judaism,  like  heathenism,  is  on  the 
side  of  darkness,  and  Manes  rejected  the  Old  Testament,  no 
doubt  because  it  frankly  owns  the  good  of  material  life. 
Jesus  appeared,  docetically,  in  the  form  of  a  human  body; 


266       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

but  his  teaching  has  been  corrupted  and  misrepresented  by 
his  followers.  Still,  in  all  these  ways  men  have  been 
invited  and  attracted  to  a  way  of  life  in  which  their 
better  soul  may  escape  from  the  power  of  darkness  and  of 
matter.  Finally,  Mani,  the  last  and  greatest  prophet,  ap- 
pears as  the  Paraclete  of  Jesus  and  the  true  guide  of  men. 

Men  are  to  experience  this  redemption  under  the  guid- 
ance of  Mani,  by  due  separation  from  the  sensual  and  the 
material,  and  by  appropriating — eating,  in  fact — the  crea- 
tures which  yield  elements  of  light.  Full  members  of  the 
Manichean  church  (eledi)  accepted  a  threefold  seal, — signa- 
culum  oris,  which  implied  renunciation  of  animal  food  and 
wine,  as  well  as  of  impure  speech ;  signaculum  manus,  which 
implied  all  possible  abstinence  from  activity  about  the 
material  things  and  interests  of  the  world ;  and  signaculum 
sinuSy  which  implied  complete  chastity.  Severe  fastings  and 
regulated  prayers,  with  sacred  washings,  were  also  enjoined ; 
the  prayers  were  addressed,  so  far  as  is  known,  to  God,  to 
the  kingdom  of  light,  to  angels,  and  to  Mani  himself.  The 
auditores,  or  catechumens,  as  already  stated,  were  much  less 
stringently  treated ;  and  many  adherents  of  the  sect  were 
content  to  remain  in  this  stage,  and  were  allowed  to  believe 
that  they  might  in  this  way  attain  Manichean  salvation. 
The  worship  in  which  the  auditores  joined  seems  to  have  been 
unimpressive  and  bare.  In  March  a  festival  was  held 
(replacing  the  Easter  of  the  Christians),  in  which  an  empty 
pulpit  or  desk  (Bema),  representing  the  authority  of  Mani  as 
teacher,  was  devoutly  venerated.  For  the  elect  a  baptism 
with  oil,  and  an  observance  modelled  on  the  Lord's  Supper, 
are  said  to  have  been  in  use. 

This  system  may  have  been  welcome  to  some,  because 
it  reduced  the  mysteries  of  good  and  evil  to  concrete  and 
tangible  forms ;  also  because,  in  its  own  way,  it  turned  the 
world  into  a  parable  of  the  great  struggle,  and  a  source  of 
endless  allegories  to  set  it  forth.  Besides  this,  it  could  be 
so  propounded  as  to  awaken  expectation  of  a  progressive 
enlightenment,  in  the  course  of  which  the  neophyte's  diffi- 
culties  would  gradually  melt  away,  and  a  deeper   secret 


180-313]  MANICHEISM  267 

meaning  would  appear.  This  was  one,  perhaps  the  main, 
motive  which  drew  Augustine  to  listen  to  the  teaching.  In 
due  time  he  saw  it  to  be  pretentious  and  baseless. 

An  edict  of  Diocletian,  dated  at  Alexandria  (perhaps  of 
the  year  287),  authorises  the  suppression  of  Manicheism. 
During  the  following  century  it  grew  in  various  provinces  of 
the  empire,  particularly  in  Africa.  From  the  time  of  Valen- 
tinian  i.  edicts  were  issued  against  it  by  Christian  emperors, 
and  it  was  sedulously  suppressed.  The  tendency  to  distort 
Christianity  in  the  Manichean  direction  continued,  however, 
to  exist,  and  showed  itself  in  new  forms  in  various  later 
sects. 

In  the  intention  of  its  founder,  and  according  to  the 
main  drift  of  its  teaching,  Manicheism  was  not  a  version  of 
Christianity ;  it  was  a  new  religion,  claiming  to  be  universal, 
which  had  appropriated  some  Christian  elements,  and  espe- 
cially had  found  a  place  for  Jesus  in  its  account  of  the 
divine  plan.  But  the  name  of  Jesus  comes  with  power 
wherever  it  does  come;  and  in  the  case  of  many  of  its 
adherents,  especially  in  the  West,  Manicheism  may  have 
been  practically  a  Christian  heresy.  It  embodied  from  the 
first  the  aspiration,  so  remarkable  and  so  pathetic,  after  a 
life  above  the  sensual.  In  that  form  its  founder  proposed 
to  find  and  to  embrace  a  better  part.  And  as  glimpses  of  a 
redeeming  care  and  power  in  connection  with  Jesus  crossed 
its  teaching,  it  is  possible  that  Christ  found  His  own  some- 
times even  among  the  Manicheans. 


THIRD   DIVISION 

A.D.  313-451 


CHAPTER   XVII 

The  Church  in  the  Christian  Empire  and  beyond 

Broglie,  VEglise  et  V Empire  Romain  au  IVme  Siecle,  Paris,  1866.  W. 
Bright,  History  of  the  Church  313-4S1,  London,  1869.  Sohms, 
Kirchengeschichte  in  Ah'iss,  1888.  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall. 
Tillemont,  Hist,  des  Empereurs^  folio,  Venice,  1732,  vols,  iv.-vi. 

A.    THE    EMPERORS 

In  A.D.  313  Constantine  and  Licinius  divided  the  empire 
between  them.  Both  of  them  at  that  time  announced  a 
policy  of  toleration,  though  Licinius  some  years  later 
became  a  declared  enemy  to  the  Church.  In  323  Licinius 
was  overthrown,  and  from  that  time  Constantine  reigned 
alone.  His  victory  decided  also  the  religious  question. 
The  ruler  of  the  world  became  the  patron  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

During  the  rest  of  the  period  three  families  successively 
supplied  rulers  for  the  empire,  viz.  that  of  Constantine, 
that  of  Valentinian,  and  that  of  Theodosius. 

Constantine  I.  died  in  A.D.  337.  He  was  succeeded  by 
his  three  sons,  Constantine,  Constantius,  and  Constans ;  but 
at  the  death  of  Constantine  (a.d.  340),  Constans  assumed  the 
government  of  his  provinces  also;  and  when,  in  A.D.  361, 
Constans  fell  in  battle,  Constantius  became  sole  ruler.  In 
A.D.  361   he  was  on  the  verge  of  war  against  his  cousin 


A.t).  313-451]     THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE    269 

Julian ;  for  the  legions  of  Gaul,  where  Julian  commanded, 
had  saluted  him  as  Augustus,  and  Constantius  would  neither 
share  the  empire  nor  resign  it.  At  the  critical  moment, 
however,  Constantius  died,  and  Julian  succeeded  without  a 
struggle.  He  declared  himself  a  worshipper  of  the  old  gods, 
and  made  his  famous  effort  to  rehabilitate  paganism.  In 
less  than  two  years  he  died  in  battle  against  the  Persians, 
and  his  projects  fell  with  him. 

After  the  short  reign  of  Jovian  (a.d.  363-364),  Valen- 
tinian  inaugurated  a  second  dynasty.  He  was  a  good 
soldier,  was  orthodox  according  to  the  standard  of  those 
days,  and  at  the  same  time  was  fairly  tolerant  in  religious 
matters.  Leaving  the  East  to  his  brother  Valens,  he  ruled 
the  West  till  his  death,  a.d.  375.  His  sons — Gratian  by 
his  first  wife,  and  Valentinian  by  his  second ;  the  first  a 
youth,  the  second  a  child — became  joint  emperors  of  the 
West.  In  connection  with  the  insurrection  of  Maximus  in 
A.D.  383,  Gratian  was  put  to  death;  but  Maximus  accepted 
Valentinian  II.  as  his  colleague,  and  ruled  for  five  years. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  he  was  overthrown  and  put  to 
death  by  Theodosius.  Valentinian  ii.,  supported  by  Theo- 
dosius,  continued  to  be  nominal  sovereign  of  the  West  until 
another  insurrection  in  a.d.  392  led  to  his  death  also. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  East,  Valens  reigned  from  a.d.  364 
to  378.  In  church  affairs  he  was  an  active  Arian;  in 
those  of  the  State  the  weakness  of  his  government  was  re- 
vealed when  the  pressure  of  the  Goths  upon  the  frontier 
had  to  be  dealt  with.  Valens  fell  in  the  great  battle  of 
Adrianople ;  and  he  left  the  Eastern  empire  in  extreme 
danger.  Gratian,  who  was  still  a  youth,  and  whose  hands 
were  full  with  Western  troubles,  could  do  little  to  retrieve 
the  disasters  in  the  East.  Happily  for  the  State  he  called 
in  Theodosius,  who  became  emperor  in  the  East,  a.d. 
379. 

Theodosius  i.  founded  a  third  dynasty.  He  belonged 
to  a  notable  Spanish  family ;  and  perhaps  his  occasional 
bursts  of  furious  passion,  his  resolute  orthodoxy,  and  his  dis- 
position to  repress  heresy  by  persecution,  were  all  connected 


270       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a-D. 

with  his  Spanish  blood.  However  that  may  be,  his  courage 
and  success  earned  for  him  the  title  of  the  Great.  He 
brought  the  Gothic  wars  to  an  end,  restored  the  order  of  the 
State,  and  vigorously  discouraged  Arianism.  In  A.D.  388 
he  went  to  the  aid  of  Valentinian  ii.,  who  was  then  assailed 
by  Maximus.  In  A.D.  394  he  once  more  invaded  the  West 
to  overthrow  Eugenius,  who  had  usurped  the  throne  on  the 
death  of  Valentinian.  After  achieving  a  complete  victory 
Theodosius  died  in  the  West,  a.d.  395. 

The  empire,  East  and  West,  had  been  for  a  moment 
reunited  in  his  person ;  at  his  death  it  was  again  divided. 
Arcadius  (a.d.  395-408),  Theodosius  ii.  (ad.  408-450), 
and  Pulcheria  (to  AD.  453)  represented  the  line  of  Theo- 
dosius I.  in  the  East;  in  the  West,  Honorius  (ad.  395-423) 
and  Valentinian  iii.  (a.d.  425-455). 

So  far  therefore  the  form  of  the  Eoman  Empire  had 
been  maintained,  and  up  to  the  death  of  Theodosius  i.  its 
dignity  and  strength  might  seem  to  have  not  yet  failed. 
But  decay  was  going  on ;  feeble  rulers  paralysed  the  State 
more  than  strong  rulers  could  invigorate  it ;  and  the  impulses 
which  propelled  the  barbarians  into  the  empire  never  ceased 
to  operate.  In  the  West,  especially,  revolts  and  invasions 
followed  one  another.  In  Africa  the  revolt  of  Firmus 
(AD.  372-374)  and  that  of  Gildo  (ad.  386-398)  pre- 
luded the  conquests  of  the  Vandals  (from  ad.  428).  Italy 
was  invaded  by  Alaric,  by  Eadagaisus,  by  Attila.^  Gaul 
and  Spain,  after  being  overrun  by  various  tribes,  were  restored 
to  nominal  connection  with  the  empire,  at  least  in  part,  by  the 
Visigoths,  who  had  left  Italy,  and  who  posed  in  Gaul  as  the 
allies  of  Eome.  But  in  these  provinces  civilisation  had  been 
shaken  to  its  base,  and  their  inhabitants  had  learned  that 
Eome  could  no  longer  protect  loyalty  or  reward  it.  Britain, 
which  had  sent  various  usurpers  to  the  Continent,  finally 
resolved  to  provide  for  its  own  safety  ;  and  so  did  Armorica. 
Honorius  sanctioned  the  arrangement :  but  as  regards  Britain, 
the  Saxons  were  soon  to  come  and  take  possession.     The  sack 

1  The  last  in  A.D.  451  or  452.     But  lie  had  vexed  the  Eastern  empire  for 
years  before,  and  had  invaded  Gaul  in  a.d.  449. 


313-451]      THE   CHURCH   IN    THE   CHRISTIAN    EMPIRE      271 

of  Eome  by  Alaric  in  a.d.  410/  and  the  devastating  con- 
quests of  Attila  (453),  resounded  through  the  world  as 
the  knell  of  Koman  glory.  Not  only  the  whole  West,  but 
the  European  provinces  of  the  Eastern  empire  were  re- 
peatedly wasted  by  these  calamitous  invasions.  For  the 
present  the  Asiatic  and  the  Egyptian  provinces  were  more 
fortunate. 

The  period  ends,  therefore,  in  political  confusion  and 
social  misery.  But  at  the  beginning  it  promised  well.  To 
Christians,  in  particular,  the  accession  of  Constantino  must 
have  seemed  most  propitious.  God  had  raised  up  for  them 
a  great  deliverer ;  the  ruler  of  the  world  was  now  a  servant 
of  Christ ;  his  arm  had  proved  strong  to  conquer  peace  and 
to  maintain  it.  In  those  days  it  seemed  as  if,  under 
Christian  auspices,  the  empire  might  essay  a  new  career, 
more  benignant  and  not  less  prosperous  than  of  old.  A 
hundred  years  later  Christian  pens  were  busy  in  explain- 
ing that  the  Eoman  State  was  too  bad  to  be  saved,  too 
thoroughly  pervaded  by  principles  of  earth  and  sin  to  escape 
from  overthrow.^ 


B.    THE    CHURCH    IN   TRANSITION 

Christians  must  have  multiplied  rapidly  during  the 
third  century,  particularly  after  the  accession  of  Gallienus ;  ^ 
doubtless  at  the  end  of  the  century  they  were  still  very 
much  in  the  minority;*  but  they  were  a  very  compact, 
resolute,  and  growing  minority  ;  they  alone,  indeed,  were 
sure  of  their  ground,  and  confident  of  their  future.  Their 
progress,  whatever  the  rate  of  it  may  have  been,  was  un- 
doubtedly impressing  the  minds  of  many  who  were  not 
Christians.     It    roused    the    advisers  of    Diocletian    to  try 

*  That  by  Genseric  the  Vandal  followed,  a.d.  455. 

*  Orosius,  Augustine,  Salvian. 

*  Gregory  Thaumaturgus  was  said  to  have  found  seventeen  Christians  only 
at  Neo-Csesarea,  when  he  became  bishop  there,  and  to  have  left  only  seven- 
teen of  the  inhabitants  still  heathen  at  the  date  of  his  death  (perhaps  a.d. 
238-270).     This,  like  much  else  told  of  him,  is  at  least  exceptional, 

*  Gibbon's  estimate,  however,  is  too  low. 


272       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a..d. 

one  more  persecution ;  but  it  must  have  impressed  others 
in  a  quite  different  way.  It  forced  men  to  recognise  that 
the  forms  of  traditional  religion  were  played  out,  and 
that,  whether  Christianity  were  divine  or  not,  the  future 
lay  with  it.  As  each  generation  passed,  this  impression 
spread  wider.  Enthusiastic  Neoplatonists  might  persuade 
themselves  that  the  old  worship  could  be  rationalised ; 
Eoman  sentiment  might  cling  to  old  Eoman  rites,  especially 
among  the  noble  families  of  Eome  itself ;  and  the  popu- 
lation of  rural  districts,  where  Christianity  made  less 
progress,  could  resist  the  influences  that  made  for  change. 
But  the  educated  people,  and  indeed  all  who  felt  the  stir  of 
the  world,  must  have  had  an  uneasy  sense  of  the  feebleness 
of  their  own  religion,  and  also  of  the  energy  with  which 
Christianity  pressed  forward  to  supplant  it.  In  fact  every 
Christian  congregation  was  a  focus  of  thought.  It  lived  by 
energetic  convictions  which  set  people  a  thinking.  Paganism, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  little  more  than  a  set  of  customs, 
having  only  the  faintest  connection  with  intelligence,  and 
its  priests  were  mere  performers  of  rites.  Of  those  who 
wrote  against  Christianity  not  one  was  a  priest  of  the  old 
religion.  In  reference  to  the  movement  and  questioning  of 
the  age,  that  religion  was  deaf  and  dumb. 

In  the  current  confidential  talk  of  the  town  populations 
and  of  educated  people,  during  several  generations,  the 
moral  of  all  this  must  have  been  drawn.  They  might  not 
care  about  Christianity ;  they  might  not  even  regret  the 
persecution  of  Diocletian,  though  probably  they  regarded  it 
as  foolish,  perhaps  as  annoying.  But  when  that  ended  in 
confessed  failure,  it  must  have  been  silently  owned  by 
masses  of  men  that  this  faith,  which  had  once  more  outworn 
the  strength  of  the  empire,  was  like  to  grow  into  a  great 
mountain  and  fill  the  earth.  The  extent  to  which  these  im- 
pressions existed  is  proved  by  the  action  of  Constantino. 
When  he  decided  that  it  was  safe  and  wise  to  stand  forth 
as  the  protector,  and  afterwards  as  the  patron,  of  the 
Christian  faith,  he  must  have  known  very  well  that  the 
Christians  were  a  minority.     But  it  might  well  be  that  a 


313  451]      THE    CHURCH    I^    THE   CHRISTIAN   EMPIRE      273 

majority  agreed  with  him  in  thinking  the  acceptance  of 
Christianity  as  the  coming  religion  to  be  no  bad  policy. 
Nothing  vital  existed  that  could  be  set  against  it.  And 
from  that  day  onwards  no  real  popular  rally  for  the  old 
faiths  was  possible.  Those,  and  they  were  very  many  indeed, 
who  did  not  love  Christianity,  yet  felt  no  call  to  interpose 
on  behalf  of  paganism.  When  it  became  evident,  then, 
that  Christianity  was  to  be  the  favoured,  and  the  only 
favoured  religion,  many  became  wilHng  to  adopt  it,  and 
many  more  to  let  their  children  adopt  it.  It  was  the  faith 
which  had  a  future ;  and  now  the  adoption  of  it  was  no 
longer  to  hinder  a  man's  worldly  prospects,  but  rather  to 
help  them. 

Of  course  this  indifference  was  not  universal.  Not  a 
few  continued  to  cherish  regard  for  the  old  deities  and  the 
old  rites.  The  preference  might  be  aristocratic  at  Eome, 
philosophic  at  Athens,  a  popular  passion  in  some  towns 
and  in  many  rural  districts.  For  this  paganism,  here 
and  there,  a  man  might  be  found  willing  even  to  die. 
There  is  always  some  tragic  fidelity  to  lost  causes.  The 
great  sea  of  paganism  did  not  empty  itself  into  the  Christian 
Church  at  once  ;  bu^  a  great  stream  of  converts  flowed  in 
incessantly  and  for  a  long  time.  Gradually  it  came  to  be 
taken  for  granted,  all  but  universally,  that  those  who  cared 
to  have  some  rehgion  should  have  this  one. 

Long  before  Diocletian  it  was  plain  enough  that  the 
churches  numbered  many  members  whose  sincerity  was  very 
doubtful.  Influences  were  already  at  work  that  attracted  a 
good  many  to  Christianity  without  subjecting  them  to 
Christ.^  But  after  Constantino's  adhesion,  the  world  began, 
inevitably,  to  pour  into  the  ChurcL  Thus  a  new  stage  of 
her  history  sets  in ;  for  forces,  which  had  indeed  more  or 
less  been  operating  all  along,  began  to  operate  with  new 
energy  and  greatly  increased  effect. 

The  Church's  relation  to  the  State  is  one  department  of 

*  So  common  an  experience  hardly  needs  proof.     But  see  tlie  character  of 
many  converts  of  Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  Ejjist.  Canonical  and  the  canons 
of  councils  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  as  Elvira.    Hefele,  i.  122. 
l8 


274       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

this  subject ;  but  it  is  better  to  think  first  of  the  Church's 
relation  to  the  world. 

Various  causes  now  rendered  it  creditable,  expedient, 
customary  for  men  to  become  Christians.  The  advantages  of 
doing  so  were  increased,  certainly,  by  a  variety  of  influences, 
governmental  and  other.  But  the  radical  fact  was  that  the 
ruler  of  the  empire  had  adopted  Christianity,  did  not  con- 
ceal his  preference  for  it,^  and  (at  best)  left  paganism  to 
reveal  all  its  weakness,  without  countenance  or  succour. 
After  that,  there  could  be  no  lack  of  reasons  to  induce  care- 
less, worldly,  or  unprincipled  people  to  associate  themselves 
with  the  winning  side.  Eolations  between  Church  and 
State  (whether  right  or  wrong)  might  be  superinduced  on 
this  situation,  but  this  remains  fundamental. 

When  the  Christian  Church  finds  herself  in  such  circum- 
stances, there  must,  no  doubt,  be  duties  which,  then  specially, 
it  falls  to  her  to  discharge,  with  a  view  to  maintain  her 
character  as  the  witness  to  truth  and  righteousness,  and 
her  fitness  for  the  functions  committed  to  her.  How  far 
such  duties  were  rightly  conceived,  or  rightly  discharged,  by 
the  Church  in  the  fourth  century,  this  is  not  the  place  to 
discuss.  The  point  to  attend  to  is  that,  at  all  events,  the 
Church  was  subjected  to  new  experiences,  and  that  the  strain 
was  applied  to  her  whole  system  in  a  new  direction. 
Fidelity  to  Christ  might  still  bring  its  penalties  ;  but  as  far  as 
the  Christian  name  and  association  with  the  Church  were 
concerned,  discouragement  had  passed  away  and  the  appro- 
bation of  society  had  begun. 

With  such  a  flood  of  questionable  disciples  the  standard 
of  Christian  feeling  and  of  Christian  life  could  not  but  tend 
downwards,  and  new  difficulties  were  prepared  for  those 
who  tried  to  raise  it.  Secularising  influence  asserted  itself 
everywhere.^ 

1  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  Constantine's  personal  Christianity,  it  soon 
became  clear  that  the  emperor  took  a  keen  interest  in  the  religion  he  pro- 
fessed, and  the  same  was  true  of  most  of  his  successors. 

2  No  better  proof  need  be  offered  than  some  of  Augustine's  statements  in 
the  Donatist  controversy,  all  the  more  because  Augustine's  sympathies  with 
spiritual  life  are  so  pronounced,  e.g.  Contr.  Ejp.  Farm,  iii.  18,  14,  15. 


313-451]      THE   CHURCH    IN   THE   CHRISTIAN   EMPIRE      275 

On  the  other  hand,  Christian  teaching  could  now  com- 
mand the  ear  of  the  Eoman  world.  The  message  of  salva- 
tion could  be  made  common  news,  and  men  in  general  could 
be  confronted  with  the  Christian  ideas.  These  were  the 
compensations.  How  the  loss  and  the  gain  balanced  one 
another  in  that  great  revolution  will  be  differently  judged  by 
different  minds.  Even  those  who  take  dark  views  of  the 
proximate  effects,  will  not  forget  how  strong  Christianity 
proves  to  be,  even  at  its  weakest,  and  what  power  of  recovery 
and  reform  it  can  command.  For  the  present,  at  any  rate, 
it  became  matter  of  course  to  profess  Christianity,  both  on 
the  part  of  those  who  cared  much  for  it,  and  on  the  part  of 
many  who  cared  little  or  nothing.  A  great  mass  of  unfixed 
opinion,  of  worldly  and  loose  life,  made  itself  at  home  in  the 
Church.  And  the  maintenance  of  a  conflict  at  the  risk  of 
all  things,  for  the  name  and  faith  of  Christ,  such  as  had  so 
often  recurred  during  the  first  three  centuries,  had  ended. 
For  the  enemy  was  disarmed;  outwardly  in  the  empire 
Christianity  was  to  be  oppressed  no  more.  In  that  sense 
there  were  to  be  no  more  confessors  or  martyrs. 

These  forms  of  influence,  it  has  been  pointed  out,  must 
have  revealed  themselves  forcibly,  even  if  the  conversion  of 
the  emperor  had  not  been  accompanied  by  the  formation  of 
ties  between  the  Christian  Church  and  the  State.  But  no 
one  thought  of  that  as  natural  or  possible.  Immunities, 
privileges,  revenues,  were  conferred  on  the  Church.  The 
clergy  became  important  public  functionaries;  ere  long  it 
was  thought  appropriate  to  apply  discouragement,  in  various 
degrees,  to  the  enemies  or  opponents  of  the  true  faith. 
Then,  moreover,  the  State  had  to  form  a  judgment  as  to  the 
Christianity  it  should  and  the  Christianity  it  should  not 
favour.  It  could  apply  influences  to  the  clergy  whose 
influence  it  owned,  and  it  had  to  decide  which  types  of  error 
called  for  discouragement,  and  what  degree  of  discourage- 
ment they  deserved.  In  all  these  departments  the  mind  of 
the  Christian  community,  asserting  itself  through  all  the 
successive  confusions,  did,  no  doubt,  powerfully  control  the 
eventual  decisions  of  the  State.     But,  on  the  other  hand,  the 


276       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

State  and  its  representatives,  mingling  as  a  domestic  force  in 
the  Church's  affairs,  exerted  a  continuous  influence,  both  para- 
lysing and  secularising,  on  her  agents  and  her  action.  The 
secular  life  of  a  corrupt  time  infused  so  much  the  more 
easily  its  method  and  its  spirit  into  the  great  organisation 
known  as  the  Catholic  Church.  This  cannot  be  overlooked 
by  any  student.  The  reaction  of  the  genuinely  Christian 
spirit  against  the  perplexities  and  temptations  hence  arising 
is  not  less  deserving  of  attention. 

a   POLICY   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN   EMPIRE   IN   REGARD   TO 
RELIGION 

Constantine's  public  favour  for  Christianity  had  opened 
with  a  strong  disclaimer  of  intolerance,  and  recognition  of 
the  principle  that  each  man  should  regulate  his  own  religious 
affairs.  Nor  did  he  afterwards  violate  flagrantly  the  prin- 
ciples then  announced.  He  set  forth  laws  against  divina- 
tion and  magic,  but  these  followed  precedents  already  set  by 
heathen  emperors ;  and  in  forbidding  rites  connected  with 
immorality  or  fraud,  he  might  be  looked  on  as  protecting 
public  order.  Towards  the  end  of  his  reign  he  despoiled 
or  closed  various  temples,  either  to  weaken  idolatry,  or  to 
adorn  his  new  capital,  or  to  turn  the  buildings  and  revenues 
to  Christian  uses.  But  in  many  places  these  temples  had 
begun  to  be  forsaken  by  their  worshippers,  and  that  might 
afford  a  pretext  for  finding  a  new  use  for  them.  There 
seems  to  be  doubt  as  to  an  alleged  law  against  sacrifices, 
issued  late  in  his  reign.^  In  any  case,  the  measure  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  carried  out  in  practice. 

The  sons  of  Constantino  acted  more  decidedly.  Con- 
stantius  ordered  the  temples  to  be  closed,  and  forbade 
sacrifices  on  pain  of  death.  The  law  was  certainly  not 
universally  enforced.  However,  from  this  time,  under 
Christian  emperors,  the  public  worship  of  paganism  was 
liable  to  challenge.     After  Julian,  however,  a  short  period 

*  Nocturnal  sacrifices  had  often  been  objects  of  special  proMbition,  and  th« 
alleged  law  might  apply  to  them. 


313-451]      THE   CHURCH   IN   THE   CHRISTIAN   EMPIRE      277 

of  partial  toleration  obtained  (bloody  sacrifices  were  for- 
bidden, but  not  incense).  Theodosius  himself  did  not  go 
much  beyond  this  till  about  391,  when  he  forbade  the 
frequenting  of  the  temples  altogether.  The  temples  them- 
selves were  to  be  maintained  as  public  monuments ;  but 
the  zeal  of  Christian  mobs  outran  the  laws,  and  in  various 
places  temples  were  pulled  down.  Paganism,  in  fact,  was 
growing  weaker,  and  emperors  and  people  alike  felt  free  to 
treat  it  with  less  ceremony.  In  392  Theodosius  forbade 
all  kinds  of  idolatry.  Under  his  successors  in  the  East  the 
actual  suppression  of  pagan  worship  was  carried  out — often 
by  swarms  of  ascetics,  who  attacked  the  temples  and  put 
down  the  idolatrous  practices  by  force.  In  the  West 
paganism  was  more  vigorous ;  and  amid  the  confusions  in 
that  part  of  the  world,  the  struggle  between  the  two  re- 
ligions had  various  fortunes  in  different  districts,  so  that 
people  suffered  both  for  Christianity  and  for  paganism. 
The  suppression  of  the  altar  of  Victory  in  the  Eoman 
senate,  decreed  by  Gratian  and  followed  up  by  Theodosius, 
was  one  landmark  in  the  process.  In  the  remoter  districts 
zealous  bishops  led  on  their  flocks  to  demolish  temples,^ 
but  reactionary  pagans  were  sometimes  equally  violent.  In 
the  end  many  local  ceremonies,  associated  with  paganism, 
were  carried  over,  with  the  necessary  changes,  to  the  Chris- 
tian worship.  The  whole  situation  in  the  West  was  power- 
fully modified  by  the  fact  that  the  Goths,  though  heretics, 
were  by  profession  Christians :  other  invading  German  races, 
that  had  not  accepted  Christianity,  took  little  interest  in 
the  religious  question  within  the  empire. 

Since  the  policy  of  the  emperors,  in  adhering  to  Chris- 
tianity and  recommending  it,  was  bringing  to  the  Church 
many  new  adherents,  buildings  and  ministers  were  wanted  to 
meet  the  situation  thus  created ;  and  the  resources  of  the 
Church  could  hardly  be  equal  to  the  strain.  This  might  be 
a  special  reason  for  the  State  contributing  to  her  necessities. 
But  probably  Constantino  did  not  think  any  argument  to 
be  required  in  order  to  justify  his  showing  favour,  out  of 

*  Sulp.  Sev.  VUa  Martini^  c,  13 


278       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

the  public  revenue,  to  the  religion  which  he  preferred.  He 
contributed  in  various  forms  to  the  supply  of  churches  and 
the  support  of  ministers ;  but  many  of  these  arrangements 
were  local  and  temporary.  The  nearest  approach  to  a  per- 
manent establishment  was  an  edict  appointing  an  alimentary 
allowance  of  corn  to  be  made  for  the  support  of  the  clergy 
{aiTrjpeaioVf  avvra^i,^  rou  (tltov)  from  the  treasuries  of  the 
various  towns.  It  is  not  clear  whether  this  extended  to  the 
whole  empire.  The  provision  was  withdrawn  by  Julian ; 
and,  after  his  death,  it  was  restored  only  to  the  extent  of 
one- third,  because  the  local  revenues  could  not  bear  a 
larger  contribution.  The  clergy,  however,  still  depended 
mainly  on  the  offerings  of  the  people ;  and  the  growth  of 
the  ecclesiastical  wealth  came  much  more  from  gifts  and 
legacies  (which  the  Church  was  now  legally  authorised  to 
receive)  than  from  the  State.  Chrysostom,  indeed,  expresses 
a  doubt  whether  the  Church  was  not  the  poorer  for  such 
help  as  the  State  did  give,  inasmuch  as  the  public  aid  had 
chilled  the  private  generosity  of  the  Christian  people.^ 
Constantine  exempted  the  clergy  from  public  offices,  such 
offices  being  of  the  nature  of  burdens  imposed  on  persons 
possessed  of  property;  but  he  soon  found  it  necessary  to 
modify  this  regulation,  because  rich  men  joined  the  ranks 
of  the  clergy  in  order  to  escape  their  public  responsibilities. 
Constantine  sanctioned  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day — 
Venerahilis  dies  solis — by  the  intermission  of  many  kinds  of 
employment.  Constantius  relieved  the  clergy  from  the  poll 
tax,  and  from  some  other  occasional  exactions.  In  addition, 
the  custom  of  resorting  to  the  bishop  for  arbitration  was 
recognised  in  cases  where  both  parties  consented ;  and  his 
award  was  made  valid  in  law.  Intercessions  of  bishops 
in  behalf  of  those  who  were  in  danger  of  severe  punish- 
ments were  allowed  considerable  influence ;  and  a  right  of 
sanctuary  in  churches  for  accused  persons  came  to  be 
legally  recognised,  at  least  in  certain  cases  and  for  a  limited 
time. 

In  the  legal  system  of  the  empire  improvements  had 
*  ff<m.  Matth.  xxvi.  67, 


813-451]      THE   CHURCH   IN   THE   CHRISTIAN   EMPIRE      279 

been  in  progress  from  a  period  much  anterior  to  Constantine. 
A  livelier  sense  of  the  equality  of  races,  of  the  common 
rights  and  interests  of  human  beings,  of  the  claims  of 
equity  and  piety,  had  gained  ground  in  the  empire  during 
the  second  and  following  centuries.  These  reforms  were 
guided  by  great  lawyers.  Amid  the  caprices  of  despotic 
government,  and  the  vicissitudes  of  stormy  times,  they  still 
cherished  high  legal  ideals,  and  gave  effect  to  them  when 
they  could ;  and  their  thoughts  were  widened  by  the  variety 
of  legal  traditions  which  the  empire  included.  Im- 
provements therefore  were  not  solely  due  to  Christian 
influence, — but  that  influence,  too,  was  telling.  A  sterner 
tone  was  taken  towards  immorality ;  gladiatorial  contests 
were  by  degrees  suppressed.^  The  interests  of  oppressed 
classes — of  slaves,  children,  women,  especially  widows  and 
orphans — were  better  guarded.  On  subjects  like  marriage, 
legislation  began  to  conform  to  Christian  ideas,  e.g.  as  to 
forbidden  degrees,  and  even  to  Christian  prejudices  like 
that  which  disapproved  of  second  marriages ;  and  the  laws 
against  celibacy  were  repealed.  But  this  approximation 
could  only  be  gradual ;  for  example,  large  liberty  of  divorce 
continued ;  and  it  is  remarked  that  punishments  became 
more  severe  and  savage. 

D.    THE    PAGAN    OPPOSITION 

Neander,  JuliaUy  1813.     Merivale,  Boyle  Lectures^  1864-5. 

Those  who  still  worshipped  the  old  gods  persisted  for 
the  most  part  silently ;  but  sometimes  they  defended  them- 
selves by  force  against  Christian  assailants,  and  sometimes 
they  revenged  themselves  on  individual  Christians  for  the 
wrongs  they  suffered.  The  Christians  whom  the  Alexandrian 
bishop  Theophilus  urged  on  to  assail  the  temple  of  Serapis  (a.d. 
391)  were  resolutely  met,  and  only  prevailed  after  a  bloody 
struggle.     Collisions  of  this  kind  were,  however,  most  apt 

*  They  lingered  longest  at  Eome,  where  they  were  abolished  in  the  time 
of  Honorius.  See  story  of  the  monk  Telemachus,  whose  self-saciifice  brought 
the  butchery  to  an  end,  in  Theod.  Hid.  Ecd.  v.  26. 


280       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

to  happen  in  remote  places,  where  a  population,  predominantly 
heathen,  clung  to  its  old  rites>  In  most  places  observances 
survived — spectacles,  popular  usages,  and  festivals — which 
retained  a  heathen  character;  and  nominal  Christians 
shared  largely  in  them.  Yet  this  really  indicated  that  in 
the  opinion  and  feeling  of  the  people  heathenism  as  a  serious 
business  was  passing  away. 

It  is  well  to  note,  however,  the  character  of  representative 
men  who  maintained  the  dying  cause.  Among  the  Eoman 
nobles  the  most  interesting  upholder  of  paganism  was  Q. 
Aurelius  Symmachus,  who  was  prefect  of  the  city  in  a.d. 
384.  He  led  the  remonstrants  on  the  question  of  the 
altar  of  Victory — which  might  almost  be  said  to  symbolise 
the  right  of  Eoman  senators  to  worship  as  their  fathers 
did.  In  A.D.  382,  384,  392,  and  perhaps  again  in  403  or 
404,  he  exerted  himself  to  move  the  Christian  emperors 
to  make  this  concession,  and  once  incurred  banishment  for 
his  pertinacity.  A  member  of  the  college  of  pontiffs,  and 
strict  in  the  performance  of  his  office,  he  was  also  well 
descended,  and  a  man  of  great  wealth ;  but  he  was  especi- 
ally valued  for  his  high  personal  qualities.  Symmachus 
was  on  friendly  terms  wdth  eminent  Christians,  and  Christian 
writers  speak  of  him  with  unvarying  respect.^  Such  was 
the  man,  and  such  his  surroundings,  who  pleaded  for  tolera- 
tion of  the  altar  of  Victory,  and  could  not  prevail.* 

Another  form  of  eminence  which  furnished  some  ad- 
vantage   in  withstanding  Christianity,    was    distinction    in 

*  All  the  more  because  it  was  believed  that  on  these  rites  being  duly  per- 
formed, health,  crops,  and  other  forms  of  prosperity  depended. 

2  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  the  influence  of  Symmachus  (then  prefect 
at  Rome,  —  previously  he  had  been  proconsul  of  Africa)  was  successfully 
exerted  in  favour  of  Augustine,  when  the  latter,  weary  of  the  ways  of  Roman 
students,  sought  a  post  at  Milan.  Augustine  was  not  yet  a  Christian  ;  but 
his  transference  to  Milan,  where  he  was  to  come  under  the  influence  of 
Ambrose,  was  a  step  in  that  direction. 

'Of  the  religion  of  his  son,  who  also  held  high  office,  we  are  uncertain. 
His  great-grandson,  who  was  eminent  before  a.d.  525,  was  a  Catholic 
Christian.  Members  (probably)  of  the  same  family  were  friends  and  corre- 
spondents of  Gregory  the  Great  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century.  See  Smith, 
Diet,  of  Christmn  Biography ,  art.  "  Symmachus." 


313-451]      THE   CHURCH    IN   THE   CHRISTIAN   EMPIRE      281 

literary  studies.  Assiduous  study  in  the  ancient  writers 
tended  naturally  to  create  spiritual  loyalty  to  the  ancient 
world,  to  its  culture  and  its  literature.  Now  the  whole 
way  of  thinking  which  pervaded  that  literature  was  attuned 
to  a  conception  of  the  world  which  Christianity  overthrew. 
To  men  of  this  class,  therefore,  the  faith  of  Christ  came 
as  a  disturbing  influence;  they  disliked  and  resented  it;  if 
any  of  them  professed  Christianity,  it  was  usually  Christianity 
of  the  lukewarm  and  dubious  type.  These  men  of  letters 
could  still  maintain  the  impression  that  something  bar- 
barian and  illiterate  clung  to  the  new  religion ;  and  this 
was  a  note  of  inferiority  which,  in  their  eyes,  discredited 
its  claims.* 

No  better  specimen  of  this  class  can  be  named  than 
Libanius  the  rhetorician.  His  works  have  the  fatal  empti- 
ness and  artificiality  inevitable  to  a  man  of  letters  who, 
living  in  the  past,  cuts  himself  off  from  the  interests  and 
the  forces  which  are  vital  in  his  own  time.  But  the  man 
himself  appears  to  have  been  a  person  of  good  sense  and 
good  feeling,  very  capable  of  friendship,  and  deserving  of 
respect.  He  obtained  regard  or  consideration  from  Chris- 
tians like  Athanasius,  Chrysostom,  Basil,  and  the  Gregoriea 

Men  of  this  type  might  be  men  of  no  religion  at  all, — 
the  old  mythology  merely  clinging  to  their  minds  as  a  world 
of  gracious  forms  which  they  would  not  discard.  But  most 
of  them  accepted  the  Neoplatonic  principles ;  they  believed, 
therefore,  that  something  true  and  good,  in  its  degree, 
really  pervaded  the  pagan  worships,  and  that  the  supreme 
goodness  might  fitly  be  approached  through  the  avenues 
thus  furnished.  A  kind  of  belief — a  certain  real  religi- 
osity on  pagan  lines — must  be  recognised.  But  it  had  a 
twilight  character.  Ardour  or  passion  of  conviction  cannot 
be  ascribed  to  such  men  as  a  class ;  and,  when  they  plead 
their  cause,  the  toleration  they  ask  for  seems  tolerance  for 
their  tastes  rather  than  for  anything  higher.  Here  and 
there,  doubtless,  the  flame  burnt  more  intensely.^ 

Certainly  an  intenser  mood  must  be  ascribed  to  the 
^  And  with  a  denser  smoke  of  superstition  :  Jamblichus  may  be  named. 


282       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

remarkable  Emperor  Julian.  His  recoil  from  Christianity 
has,  naturally  enough,  been  accounted  for  from  his  peculiar 
history ;  it  has  been  traced  to  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  his 
family  by  Constantius,  the  precarious  tenure  by  which  for 
years  he  held  his  life,  and  the  self-suppression  with  which 
he  had  to  guard  his  thoughts  and  feelings  from  the  Christian 
tutors,  who  were  also  spies,  in  whose  charge  he  was.  Con- 
stantias  himself,  the  author  of  Julian's  adversities,  was  an 
ardent  Christian  in  his  way ;  and  so  when,  as  an  alternative, 
a  plausible  non-Christian  conception  of  life  offered  itself,  it 
found  Julian  predisposed  to  embrace  it.  All  this  must 
certainly  count  for  something.  Yet  in  the  case  of  Julian's 
brother,  Gallus,  the  same  causes  failed  to  produce  a  similar 
result. 

Julian,  like  other  members  of  the  house  of  Constantine, 
was  religiously  disposed.  Eeligion  interested  and  attracted 
him.  Had  he  been  a  Christian  he  would  have  been,  most 
likely,  a  keen  and  restless  one.  Without  being  a  Christian, 
he  was  sincere  and  devout  in  his  regard  to  the  supernatural, 
and  he  combined  his  piety  with  a  high  moral  standard,  and 
a  resolute  effort  to  be  true  to  it.  Now  for  such  a  man  the 
age  offered  an  alternative.  In  an  earlier  chapter  ^  we  have 
sketched  the  way  in  which  Neoplatonism  appealed  to  some 
minds  in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries.  Julian  doubtless 
felt  the  force  of  that  appeal ;  and  something  in  Christianity 
repelled  him.  It  was  too  positive,  too  peremptory,  too  sure 
of  itself ;  it  assigned  to  its  disciple  a  place  too  lowly,  and  it 
had  too  much  to  say  of  sin.  Also  it  scorned  all  other 
religion  as  futile  and  null ;  but  that  might  stir  Julian  to 
resolve  to  confute  it  on  that  very  point.  There  was  plenty 
of  religiosity  in  the  world, — there  were  portents,  faith  heal- 
ings, apparitions,  apprehensions  of  the  supernatural,  worships, 
mysteries ;  ^  and  these,  it  seemed,  were  all  to  be  trampled 
down  or  waived  aside  at  the  bidding  of  Christianity.  But 
why  ?     Why  should  all  that  had  flowered  out  from  the  classic 

>  SuprOj  p.  146. 

^  How  all  these  held  their  place  in    the  common  mind,  see  Lucian, 
**Philopseudes,"  and  also  **  Alexander  of  Abonoteichus." 


313-451]      THE   CHURCH    IN   THE    CHRISTIAN   EMPIRE      283 

mind  and  heart  wither  and  die  ?  It  needed  to  be  rallied : 
it  needed  to  be  moralised,  dignified,  made  practical  and 
venerable.  With  a  view  to  that,  men  must  be  in  earnest  with 
the  New  Platonism  ;  paganism  must  be  made  to  take  itself 
seriously.  The  popular  rites  must  be  filled  with  the  awe  of 
worship,  and  made  to  ally  themselves  with  moral  purpose  and 
spiritual  aspiration.  For  Julian  had  certainly  learned  to 
appreciate  some  of  the  forces  of  Christianity :  its  resolute 
faith,  its  great  ideas  inculcated  by  preaching,  its  moral  in- 
tensity. Let  the  old  worship,  then,  be  quickened  by  the 
doctrines  of  a  congenial  and  friendly  philosophy;  let  it 
be  as  believing  as  Christianity,  as  assiduous  in  preaching,  as 
conscious  of  the  dignity  of  moral  life.  Julian  was  serious 
in  all  this.  He  was  himself  religious  without  Christ,  and 
religious  in  a  sense  that  gave  glow  and  expectancy  to  his 
existence ;  and  he  was  so  little  opposed  to  the  supernatural, 
or  distrustful  of  it,  that  he  was  ready  to  meet  it  everywhere. 
If  he  could  live  this  life,  then  the  world,  too,  could  do  so. 
It  was  not  needful  to  sacrifice  the  culture,  the  thought,  and 
the  worships  of  Greece  to  a  barbarian  creed. 

Philostratus  (a.d.  182-245)  had  made  an  effort  to  show 
that  what  was  admirable  and  desirable  in  Christ  could  be 
had  on  pagan  terms.  He  had  exhibited  Apollonius  (living 
in  the  end  of  the  first  century)  as  a  reformer  and  renovator 
of  heathen  religion,  who  exhaled  goodness,  and  who  carried 
the  supernatural  with  him  wherever  he  went.  That  was 
in  a  book.  But  could  it  not  be  done  in  the  face  of  the 
world  ?  Could  not  one  inspire  and  energise  the  heathen 
religion  to  make  the  best  of  itself,  and  to  embody  in  actual 
life  the  Neoplatonic  dream  ?  Perhaps  only  an  emperor 
could  attempt  it;  but  when  Julian,  after  anxious  vicissi- 
tudes, attained  the  empire — was  not  this  providential  ?  Was 
not  the  time  come,  and  the  man  ? 

One  sees  that  Julian,  with  his  sincere  religious  intensities, 
had  no  great  religious  depth,  or  he  would  not  have  under- 
taken to  reproduce  in  paganism  the  features  that  made 
Christianity  remarkable,  and  the  forces  which  made  it 
successful     He   did   not  really  know  what  these  were,  or 


284  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

he  knew  them  only  on  the  surface.  But  this,  after  all, 
makes  it  easier  for  us  to  realise  Julian's  sincerity.  He 
combined  with  really  great  qualities  a  certain  egotistic 
simplicity  and  mental  gaucherie,  which  reminds  one  of 
James  vi.  of  Scotland ;  only  James  was  far  less  truthful  than 
Julian  was.  Julian  was  a  brave  and  essentially  sincere  man, 
with  much  ability,  with  intellectual  and  moral  aspiration,  and 
with  benevolent  impulses.  But  something  that  was  per- 
verse and  even  laughable  adhered  to  his  best  qualities. 

Besides  descending  in  person  into  the  literary  arena 
(his  KaTa  Xpiariavcov  Xoyot  were  answered  by  Cyril  of 
Alexandria),^  Julian  annulled  the  privileges  that  had  been 
conferred  on  the  Church  by  his  predecessors,  and  he  restored 
to  the  temples  the  property  of  which  they  had  been  de- 
prived. He  probably  meditated  promoting  in  the  service 
of  the  empire  only  those  who  were  not  Christians;  and 
he  ordained,  in  reference  to  schools,  that  the  ancient 
literature  should  be  taught  only  by  those  who  believed 
in  the  ancient  gods.  He  showed  a  certain  animosity  in 
dealing  with  conduct  on  the  part  of  Christians  which  he 
reckoned  violent  and  contumacious :  but  this  is  not  wonder- 
ful: and,  on  the  whole,  we  must  ascribe  to  him  a  praise- 
worthy spirit  of  tolerance  and  self-controL  It  is  rather 
surprising  that  his  enterprise  against  Christianity  had  not 
more  success.  A  certain  number  of  unstable  Christians 
went  over  to  him ;  but  he  himself  could  not  reckon  them 
numerous.  He  stood  practically  alone.  His  enthusiasm 
for  pagan  rites  and  magical  divinations  outran  the  sympathy 
even  of  pagans,  while  it  awakened  Christian  contempt. 
Besides,  his  reign  was  too  short  to  give  play  to  his  projects ; 
and  his  early  death  impressed  the  world  with  the  feeling 
that  the  Fates  themselves  were  adverse.  All  things  resumed 
their  former  course  as  soon  as  he  left  the  scene. 

Christianity  could  be  controverted :  philosophy  could  be 
made  plausible  to  speculative  minds:  and  a  materialised 
system  of  symbolic  worship  might  be  put  forward  as  better 

^  Oontra  Julianum.     From  this  source  Julian's  arguments  have  been  re- 
stored by  Neumann,  Leipsic,  1880. 


313-451]      THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    CHRISTIAN    EMPIRE      285 

fitted  for  the  mass  of  men  than  the  worship  that  is  in  spirit 
and  in  truth.  But  Christianity  was  irresistible.  Something 
might  be  done  by  philosophising  Christianity,  and  something 
by  paganising  it,  but  no  direct  attack  in  front  could  be 
successful.^  Yet  long  after  public  paganism  had  ceased, 
intelligent  men  existed  who  continued  to  cling  to  some  form 
of  the  pagan  traditions. 

In  the  foregoing  sketch,  those  who  openly  adhered  to 
Christianity  and  those  who  made  some  stand  for  paganism 
have  been  chiefly  in  view.  But  in  closing,  a  third  class 
must  be  kept  in  view.  A  mass  of  people,  probably  a  great 
mass,  who  obeyed  the  emperors,  who  m^de  no  resistance  to 
the  abolition  of  paganism,  and  who  made  no  objection  to 
the  elevation  of  Christianity  to  be  the  State  religion,  still 
remained  neutral.  They  had  no  religion,  or  rather,  they 
retained  enough  of  superstition  to  supply  the  place  of  one. 
This  superstition  might  gradually  receive  Christian  elements. 
But  probably  a  considerable  time  passed  before  this  great 
section  came  to  regard  Christianity  as  their  own  religion, 
and  the  offices  of  the  Church  as  their  own  inheritance. 


E.    CHRISTIANITY   BEYOND   THE   EMPIEB 

The  most  important  extension  of  Christianity  at  this  time 
was  among  the  Goths.  In  their  case  it  took  the  form  of 
Arianism ;  and  in  this  form  it  was  propagated  in  turn  to 
other   German  races.      Christian   influence   seems   to  have 

*  The  New  Platonists  believed  the  ancient  worship,  while  it  had  an  element 
of  truth  and  worth,  needed  to  be  purified  by  being  idealised.  This  reform, 
which  they  reckoned  practicable,  was  interfered  with  by  Christianity ;  and 
they  regarded  Christianity  (whatever  truth  it  might  contain)  as  mainly  a  new 
superstition  of  barbarian  origin.  The  acceptance  of  it  they  regarded  as  a  great 
mistake,  perplexing  the  proper  movement  of  the  world.  The  -attitude  of 
Erasmus  and  some  other  Humanists  to  Lutheranisra  may  be  compared.  The 
later  New  Platonists,  including  Julian,  were  led  or  constrained  to  throw  them- 
selves, much  more  than  the  earlier,  on  tbe  supernatural  element  in  their 
system,  and  they  did  so  with  conviction.  Proclus  (412-485)  had  seen  Apollo, 
who  cured  him  of  an  illness  ;  he  had  various  other  experic  nces  of  the  same 
kind,  and  was  minute  and  devout  in  worship  of  the  ancient  gods.  On  Julian, 
see  Neander,  Kaiser  Julian,  Leipsic,  1812 ;  G.  H.  Kendall,  Emperor  Jviian, 
1879,  and  a  careful  article  by  J.  Wordsworth  in  Diet,  Christ.  Biogr, 


286       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

reached  the  Goths  first  through  Christian  captives  from 
Cappadocia  and  other  Asian  provinces.  Later,  Gothic  tribes 
settled  in  the  countries  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Danube 
and  came  into  contact  with  the  Christianity  of  the  Eastern 
empire.  Constantinopolitan  Christianity  was  then  Arian: 
and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  even  the  earlier  Christian 
agents,  from  Cappadocia  or  elsewhere,  cannot  be  assumed 
to  have  taught  a  doctrine  which  was  definitely  Nicene. 
Far  the  most  influential  person  in  diffusing  and  organising 
Christianity  among  the  Goths  was  Ulfilas,  who  was  under 
Constantinopolitan  influence,  and  who  was  consecrated 
bishop  for  the  Goths  in  A.D.  348.  He  appears  to  have 
been  an  Arian  of  the  Eusebian  type.  To  him  the  Goths 
owed  their  translations  of  the  Scriptures.  When  the 
overthrow  of  Arianism  took  place  under  Theodosius,  Ulfilas 
made  efforts  to  avert  the  catastrophe,  and  he  died  at 
Constantinople,  which  he  had  visited  in  that  interest. 
But  his  people  (specially,  the  Visigoths)  adhered  to  his 
teaching,  and  it  spread  remarkably  among  kindred  tribes, 
first  among  the  Ostrogoths  and  the  Vandals.  Near  the 
end  of  our  period  the  Suevi  in  Spain,  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  Burgundians  in  Gaul,  adopted  Arianism,  after 
having  for  a  time  professed  Catholicism.  The  invasion 
of  these  races  carried  a  fresh  Arian  influence  into  the 
empire,  where  that  doctrine  was  dying  out.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  race  antagonism  between  Eoman  and 
Goth  became  religious  antagonism  between  Catholic  and 
Arian.  There  is  little  trace  of  any  high  culture,  any 
originality,  or  any  great  amount  of  influence  among  the 
Gothic  clergy.  On  the  whole,  the  Goths  seem  to  have  been 
fairly  tolerant  to  their  Catholic  subjects  in  the  territories 
which  they  conquered.  The  Vandals,  after  their  conquest 
of  Africa,  form  the  great  exception  to  this  statement.  The 
barbarous  persecutions  of  the  African  Catholics  (under 
Genseric  and  Hunerich)  fall  chiefly  later  than  our  period.^ 

*  C.  Anderson  Scott,  B.A.,  Ulfilas,  the  Apostle  of  the  Goths,  Camb.  1885; 
K.  G.  Krafft,  Oesch.  der  Germ.  Viilker,  i.  BerL  1854 ;  Gothic  transl.  of  Bible, 
E.  Bernhardt,  Halle,  1876. 


313-451]      THE   CHURCH    IN   THE    CHRISTIAN    EMPIRE      287 

The  Christians  in  Persia^  had  to  endure  very  severe 
persecutions,  partly  because  the  Persian  monarchs  regarded 
Christianity,  from  the  days  of  Constantino,  as  a  Eoman, 
i.e.  a  hostile,  faith,  but  partly  also  because  they  became 
fanatical  supporters  of  the  Zend  religion.  Two  notable 
persecutions  took  place,  one  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
fourth  century,  the  other  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth. 
The  Persian  Christianity  was  naturally  in  close  alliance 
with  the  Syrian,  and  when  Nestorianism  was  banished 
from  the  empire  its  disciples  found  shelter  among  the 
Persian  Christians.  Nestorian  Christianity,  denounced  and 
persecuted  by  the  Eomans,  was  so  much  the  less  objection- 
able in  Persia ;  and  from  that  time  the  Persian  Christianity, 
in  its  Nestorian  form,  maintained  its  existence  with  little  or 
no  relation  to  that  of  the  Eoman  Empire. 

The  fortunes  of  Christianity  in  Armenia  *  also  were 
affected  by  the  repeated  wars,  between  the  Persians  and 
the  Armenians,  or  between  non-Christian  Armenians  sup- 
ported by  Persia,  and  Christian  Armenians  supported  by 
Eome.  The  struggle  on  the  part  of  the  Armenian  Christians 
was  very  gallant  and  resolute.  The  Persian  Government, 
after  years  of  persecution,  found  it  necessary  to  adopt  a 
policy  of  toleration.  This  Church  owed  its  translation  of  the 
Scriptures,  and,  indeed,  the  foundation  of  a  native  literature, 
to  Mesrob  (d.  441).  Monophysite  influences  early  prevailed 
in  Armenia,  and  that  doctrine  is  still  professed  by  the  official 
Armenian  Church. 

The  Christianity  of  Britain  was  destined  to  be  crushed 
over  a  great  part  of  the  old  Eoman  province  by  the  invasion 
of  the  heathen  Saxons,  which  began  about  the  end  of  our 
period  (a.d.  449).     But  meanwhile  Patrick  ^  (said  to  have 

*  Rawlinson,  Seventh  great  Oriental  Mmmrchy,  Loud.  1876 ;  Noldeke, 
Au/saize  zur  persiscTien  Ge^chichte,  Leipz.  1887. 

^  J.  St.  Martin,  Mdmoires  Hist,  de  VArmenie,  2  vols.,  Paris,  1819; 
Elisaeus,  Hist,  of  Vartan,  translated  by  C.  F.  Neumann,  Loud.  1830 ; 
Neumann,  Oesch.  der  Armen.  Liter.,  Leipz.  1836. 

•  Lifty  etc.,  by  J.  H.  Todd,  D.D.,  Dublin,  1864.  Two  writings  ascribed  to 
Patrick  are  believed  to  be  genuine,  the  Confessio  and  The  Epistle  to  Coroticus. 
in  Grallandius,  Biblioth.,  torn.  x. 


288       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

been  a  native  of  Kilpatrick  on  the  Clyde,  and  to  have  been 
carried  into  slavery  for  a  time  by  sea  rovers)  became  the 
Apostle  of  Ireland.  His  teaching  seems  to  have  encountered 
little  serious  opposition,  and  Christianity  spread  rapidly 
through  the  island  (from  about  A.D.  430). 

A  kingdom  called  Axum  ^  existed  to  the  south  of  Egypt, 
coinciding  generally  with  what  we  now  know  as  Abyssinia. 
Early  in  the  fourth  century  a  ship,  freighted  by  merchant 
adventurers,  was  wrecked  on  the  coast.  Two  youths, 
Erumentius  and  Aedesius,  escaped  drowning,  were  brought 
as  slaves  to  the  capital,  passed  into  the  service  of  the 
king,  and  gained  his  favour.  By  and  by  they  were  allowed 
to  return  northwards,  and  at  Alexandria  Frumentius  was 
consecrated  by  Athanasius  to  return  as  missionary  bishop 
to  Axum.  The  work  of  Christianity  was  afterwards  pushed 
on  by  monks  from  Egypt,  and  naturally  became  subject  to 
the  Alexandrian  Patriarch.  When  the  discussions  regard- 
ing the  person  of  Christ  were  developed,  this  church  took 
the  Monophysite  side.  It  seems  soon  to  have  fallen  into 
an  inactive  and  unprogressive  state,  and  it  is  characterised 
by  some  features  of  a  curiously  Jewish  kind,  which  are 
not  easily  accounted  for.  It  has  preserved  a  literature 
of  its  own,  which  includes  ^thiopic  translations  of  early 
Apocrypha  not  preserved  in  any  other  form.  In  connection 
with  it  a  Christianity  existed  for  a  time  in  Southern 
Arabia ;  but  this  was  eventually  overwhelmed  by  the  onset 
of  Mohammedanism. 


F.    LIFE   IN   THE    ChURCH 

Gradually  the  populations  of  the  empire  assumed  a 
Christian  tinge.  We  have  no  statistics;  but  even  those 
who  did  not  form  any  regular  tie  to  the  Church  acquired 
some  acquaintance  with  churches,  festivals,  popular  preachers, 
—also  in  some  degree  even  with  the  objects  of  Christian 

1  H.  Ludolph,  Hist.  jEthiopica,  ed.  4,  Frankf.  1681,  and  ComTnentaries^ 
1691,  App.  1694  ;  Dillraann,  Anfange  des  axumitischen  JUichs^  Abh.  Berl.  Ak., 
1878.  1880. 


313-451]      THE   CHURCH   IN  THE   CHRISTIAN   EMPIRE      289 

faith:  they  could  sometimes  mingle  in  the  discussions  of 
Christian  parties,  and  they  could  appreciate  the  popular  and 
picturesque  side  of  Christian  worship,  so  far  as  that  was 
revealed  to  unbelieving  eyes.  It  was  now  possible  in  some 
places  to  have  Christian  mohs,  ready  to  fight  where  Christian 
interests  were  supposed  to  be  concerned. 

As  to  the  special  life  of  the  Church  proper,  we  may 
remember,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  change  which 
Constantine  achieved  was  attended  with  a  great  exhilaration 
for  Christian  minds.  Since  the  empire  had  bowed  to  Christ, 
no  hopes  could  be  too  high.  For  a  time  this  imparted  to  the 
Church,  and  especially  to  its  earnest  ministers,  new  courage 
and  a  certain  grand  style  of  thought  and  action.  This  was 
never  wholly  lost,  even  when  times  of  perplexity  and  dis- 
couragement returned.  Then,  whatever  may  be  truly  said 
of  the  progress  of  a  secular  and  worldly  spirit  among  the 
Christians  and  their  clergy,  it  is  clear  that  in  the  case  of 
individuals  and  families  a  powerful  religious  life,  simple, 
sincere,  and  resolute,  reacted  against  these  influences.  The 
fourth  century  is  an  age  of  great  churchmen,  and  in  the  case 
of  very  many  of  them  they  are  seen  rising  out  of  families  in 
which  piety  made  its  home ;  that  is  the  influence  which,  in 
the  end,  brings  about  their  decision  to  serve  Christ. 

The  questionable  converts,  whose  presence  lowered  the 
average  state  of  the  Christian  society,  were  therefore  con- 
fronted by  devoted  Christians.  Still,  the  canons  of  councils 
reveal  the  difficulties  with  which  Church  discipline  had  to 
contend.  The  indulgences,  diversions,  and  frivolities  of  a 
society  reared  in  paganism  acclimatised  themselves  in  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  coarser  sins,  though  they  continued  to  be 
resisted  and  condemned,  became  commoner  incidents,  and  so 
more  familiar.  On  the  other  side,  no  doubt  in  many  sections 
of  the  population  marriages,  funeral  usages,  superstitions  (as 
to  dangers  and  deliverances)  conformed  increasingly  to  a 
Christian  type,  and  great  Christian  festivals  became  gradu- 
ally observances  which  pervaded  the  community.^ 

*  A  good  many  local  features,  arising  from  old  popular  feelings  aud  habits, 
attached  to  the  Christian  celebrations  and  observances  in  many  places.     The 

19 


290  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH       [a.d.  313-451 

In  dealing  with  all  this  the  representatives  of  the 
Church  too  often  took  a  hne  that  was  essentially  weak. 
It  was  very  convenient  to  assume  that  in  baptism  a 
foundation  had  been  laid  on  which  it  was  necessary  only 
to  build  some  items ;  and  it  became  a  prevalent  fashion  to 
insist  (as  indispensable)  on,  first,  the  avoidance  of  gross  sins 
(the  Church's  discipline  being  accepted  in  case  they  were  in- 
curred) ;  and,  second,  the  cultivation  of  ecclesiastical  virtues, 
prayer,  almsgiving,  fasting,  which  were  often  recommended 
expressly  on  the  ground  that  they  take  away  minor  sins. 
This  seemed  perhaps  the  only  way  to  make  something  of 
the  disciples  whom  one  had  in  hand,  the  only  formula 
likely  to  be  intelligible  and  operative.  It  tended  to  give 
a  sanctioned  position  to  a  great  deal  of  Christianity  that 
was  only  a  compromise  between  religious  forms  and  pagan 
dispositions. 

But  that  the  Christian  message,  represented  by  the 
great  preachers  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  could  at 
least  stir  consciences  and  awaken  lively  solicitude,  we  have 
a  strong  proof  in  the  phenomenon  of  the  monastic  life  which 
now  claims  our  attention. 

effort  of  the  churchmen  of  the  fourth  century  was  to  suppress  these,  and  to 
produce  conformity  to  the  methods  of  the  great  churches.  Eamsay,  Church 
in  Roman  Empire,  chap.  xvii. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

MONASTICISM 

Bingtam,  Orig.,  vol.  iii.  Helyot,  Histoire  des  Ordres  MonastiqueSy  Paris, 
1714.  Mbhler,  Geschichte  d.  Mdnchthwms ;  Schrift.  u.  Aufsdtzeny  ii. 
A.  Harnack,  Das  Mdnchthum^  1886.  Athan.,  De  Vita  Antonii,  0pp. 
i.  Sozomen,  H.  E.  i.  c.  12-14.  Theodoret,  Hist.  Belig.,  0pp.  iii. 
(ed.  Hal.)  1886.  Jno.  Cassian^  Coll.  Fatrum  in  Corpiis  SariyUyrvm 
Latin.t  Vindob.  1888. 

We  have  seen  that  forms  of  self-denial  as  to  food,  marriage, 
etc.,  had  been  adopted  by  some  Christians  from  a  very  early 
period.^  They  aimed,  on  this  line,  at  Christian  thoroughness, 
and  they  were  known  as  ascetics.  If  it  was  good  to  begin 
this  kind  of  life,  it  must  also,  of  course,  be  good  to  persevere ; 
hence  declension  from  a  declared  ascetic  purpose  was  looked 
upon  as,  more  or  less,  a  fall.  The  declared  purpose  therefore 
became  virtually  a  vow.^  Still,  those  who,  after  beginning 
an  ascetic  course,  chose  to  discontinue  it,  though  thought  to 
be  in  peril,  were  not  at  first  regarded  as  having  made  total 
shipwreck.  They  were,  in  a  sense,  within  their  right,  though 
they  were  making  a  questionable  use  of  it. 

Such  asceticism  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  appropriate 
expression  of  Christian  devotedness,  at  least  for  those  to 
whom  it  was  practically  open.  It  was  the  "  whole  yoke  of 
the  Lord,"  according  to  the  writer  of  Clem.  Eom.  Up.  ii. 
It  is  the  angelic  life,  according  to  Methodius  (Conviv.  vii.). 
In  the  case  of  virgins,  especially,  it  acquired  a  significance 
that  was  romantic  as  well  as  sacred  ;  for  in  the  light  of 
the  Song  of  Solomon,  and  of  other  passages  spiritually  inter- 

»  Ante,  pp.  68,  223,  224. 

•  Not  expressly,  apparently,  till  far  on  in  the  third  century. 

891 


292       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

preted,  the  consecrated  women  were  contemplated  as  brides 
of  Christ.^  This  view  became  the  source  of  many  in- 
ferences. 

The  earlier  ascetic  Kfe  did  not  imply  separation  from  the 
family,  nor  from  ordinary  associations.  Now  it  assumed 
the  intenser  form  of  a  retreat  to  the  wilderness,  so  as  to  part 
from  all  of  common  life  that  could  be  parted  from.  In  the 
desert,  distractions  could  be  avoided,  temptations  to  common 
forms  of  indulgence  must  presumably  be  absent,  time  could 
be  devoted  completely  to  devout  exercises,  and  the  flesh 
could  be  chastised.  It  is  not  quite  clear  when  this  Christian 
avax(oprj(7L<:  began  to  be  important.  There  might  be  stray 
instances  at  any  time.  It  has  been  said  that  some  who  fled 
to  the  desert  to  escape  the  Decian  persecution,  in  the  middle 
of  the  third  century,  became  enamoured  of  the  lonely  and 
simple  life,  and  continued  it  after  the  persecution  had  passed 
away.'  But  the  historical  indications  suggest  that  the 
stream  of  Christian  hermits  began  to  flow  early  in  the  fourth 
century  during  Diocletian's  persecution. 

In  taking  this  course,  Christians  were  only  following  the 
example  of  men  of  other  religions.  AU  religions  which 
preached  either  the  evil  of  material  existence,  or  its  un- 
reality and  vanity,  were  apt,  when  intensely  apprehended,  to 
throw  Eastern  men  on  ascetic  life.  This  was  the  way  in 
which  to  trample  on  material  ease,  and  to  assert,  through 
solitude  and  meditation,  the  supreme  worth  of  spiritual 
existence.  This  was  the  way  in  which  to  break  through  the 
deceitful  shows  which  entangle  us,  and  find  entrance  into  the 
region  of  reality.  Egypt,  by  its  soil  and  climate,  lent  itself 
to  such  a  life,  or  rather,  suggested  it  to  meditative  men. 
Accordingly  in  Egypt  there  had  already  existed  the  Thera- 
peutse  of  Philo ;  and  there  also  the  New  Platonists,  following 
older  schools,  had  developed  their  theory  of  asceticism.  In 
conforming  to  such  examples  the  Christians  found  Christian 
reasons  for  the  course  they  took,  but  they  could  hardly  fail 

*  Methodius,  Convivium,  iv.  6. 

*  This  is  implied  in  the  life  of  Paul  of  Thebes  (by  Jerome,  0pp.  ii.) ;  but 
that  authority  is  not  trustworthy. 


313-451]  MONASTICISM  293 

to  imbibe  also  something  of  the  mode  of  view  of  their  pre- 
decessors. Hence  among  the  Christians  themselves  the 
ascetic  life  was  denominated  "  the  philosophy,"  i.e.  the 
practical  wisdom.  The  Christian  anchoret  was  carrying  out, 
in  the  Christian  way,  suggestions  which  had  visited  even 
Gentile  thinkers. 

At  first  solitude  was  a  chief  condition  aimed  at  by  the 
dva^copr)Ti]<;^  who  thus  became  fiovd^cov  or  fiova'^6<;.  The 
model  of  the  life  was  Antony,  whose  story  had  been  written 
by  Athanasius.^  Antony  is  said  to  have  been  born  about 
A.D.  250.  He  inherited  wealth;  but  about  a.d.  270  the  text 
in  the  Gospel  concerning  the  rich  young  man  led  him  to 
distribute  his  goods  among  the  poor,  and  to  retreat  from  the 
world  in  order  to  devote  his  life  to  God.  He  found  refuge 
first  in  a  tomb,  then  in  an  old  castle,  then  in  a  desert  place 
where  he  could  live  on  dates.  Friends  brought  him  some 
supplies  half-yearly;  and  by  and  by  many  sought  him  for 
miraculous  help  or  for  counsel,  and  other  ascetics  gathered 
round  him  for  guidance.  His  influence  became  great  after  the 
year  311,  when  he  appeared  in  Alexandria,  during  Maximin's 
persecution,  to  minister  to  the  martyrs  and  to  denounce  the 
persecutors.  Forty  years  later  he  once  more  came  to 
Alexandria,  to  support  the  cause  of  Athanasius  during  the 
Arian  troubles.  He  died  a.d.  356,  it  is  said  at  the  age  of 
105.  The  story  of  his  life  contains  much  that  is  extrava- 
gant and  even  ludicrous ;  but  an  attentive  reader  will  find 
interesting  traits  of  Christian  feeling,  and  of  Christian  wisdom 
also,  gleaming  through.  He  seems  to  have  remained  a 
humble  man,  and  he  withdrew  himself  as  far  as  he  could 
from  the  adulation  of  his  admirers. 

The  tide  of  Christian  devotees  began  to  flow  apparently 
from  the  time  when  Antony  became  famous.  Egypt  long 
continued  to  be  the  country  most  noted  for  hermits ;  but 
early  in  the  century  waste  places  in  Palestine  and  Syria 
began    also    to    be   resorted    to.       The    impulse    reached 

*  The  authorship  has  been  questioned  on  account  of  the  extraordinary 
nature  of  a  good  deal  of  the  contents  ;  but  the  evidence  for  it  seems  to  be  con> 
daaive. 


294       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

Pontus,  Cappadocia,  and  Armenia  somewhat  later.  Far  in 
the  East  towards  the  Euphrates  the  same  condition 
of  things  is  proved  hj  the  writings  of  Aphraates  before 
346. 

Solitude  was  the  ideal  of  this  life ;  but  yet  it  was  a 
natural  tendency  for  the  hermits  to  draw  together  and  form 
groups,  especially  around  some  exceptional  personality. 
Indeed  it  is  wonderful  that  the  theory  of  a  social  being,  like 
man,  finding  his  perfection  in  solitude,  should  have  been 
entertained  at  all.  It  was  soon  found,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
that  the  life  of  solitude  exposed  the  hermits  to  dangers  and 
mistakes,  both  from  lack  of  sympathy  and  lack  of  control. 
It  was  a  gain,  therefore,  when  monastic  villages  or  settle- 
ments (kavpai)  were  formed,  the  ascetics  living  each  in  his  own 
hut,  but  all  able  to  assemble  for  common  worship ;  and  still 
more  when  a  company  of  hermits  was  formed  into  a  society 
with  a  regulated  common  life,  the  dweUings  being  arranged 
with  a  view  to  this.  The  inauguration  of  this  system  is 
ascribed  to  Pachomius.  This  ascetic,  before  a.d.  340, 
formed  a  monastery  on  the  island  of  Tabennse  in  the  Nile 
(fiovaa-TTjpLoVy  kolvco^iov,  place  of  common  life  ;  /jidvBpa,  fold). 
Besides  the  gain  to  the  credit  and  profit  of  the  ascetic  life 
which  seemed  likely  to  arise  from  the  method  of  Pachomius,  it 
gave  to  the  multitude  of  hermits  an  organisation  through  which 
they  could  be  connected  in  an  orderly  way  with  the  general 
system  of  the  Church.  This  was  of  great  importance  in  an  age 
in  which  the  Church's  sanction  and  benediction  were  so  much 
prized.  It  is  true,  no  doubt,  as  we  shall  see,  that  some  who 
revolted  from  the  Church's  authority  became  ascetics,  and 
asserted  Liberty  or  eccentricity  in  that  guise.  But  the  opposite 
tendency  was  stronger.  All  the  great  churchmen  of  the 
fourth  century  were  friendly  to  asceticism,  and  all  of  them 
advocated  the  regulated  common  life  as  the  safest  form  of  it. 
At  the  same  time  a  good  deal  of  spontaneity  and  variety 
must  at  this  period  be  supposed.  People  planned  and 
carried  out  their  own  ways  of  it,  and  these  approximated  in 
various  degrees  to  the  settled  type  which  eventually  pre- 
vailed.    A  period  of  probation  soon  came  to  be  imposed  on 


313-451]  MONASTICISM  295 

those  who  desired  to  be  monks  or  nims.  The  features  of 
the  life  on  which  they  entered  ^  were  chiefly  celibacy,  laying 
down  of  possessions,  obedience  to  a  presiding  person  (Abbas, 
ap'x^LfjLavhpiTr}^)^  fixed  times  for  worship  (three  daily  at 
first,  afterwards  six,  finally  seven),  for  meals,  for  occupations ; 
adoption  of  some  simple  and  homely  dress  which  became 
common  and  distinctive,  and  submission  to  discipline  for 
offences.  A  common  place  of  abode — house  or  cluster  of 
houses — was  necessary.  Manual  labour  to  provide  the 
necessaries  of  life  was  enjoined,  at  least  in  the  East. 
In  the  West,  for  a  time,  this  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  the  practice.  Food  was  always  simple ;  the  quantity 
was  not  at  first  prescribed,  though  comparative  abstinence 
came  nearer  to  the  ideal  that  was  in  view.  Those  who  ate 
more  were  expected  to  work  more.  Many  leading  bishops 
of  the  later  half  of  the  century  had  passed  through 
discipline  of  this  kind  ;  for  instance,  Epiphanius,  Basil  of 
Caesarea,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Chrysostom  ;  but  in  their  case 
the  earlier  and  freer  attitude  of  men  who  adopt  the  rule  so 
long  and  so  far  as  themselves  judge  it  to  be  helpful,  is  still 
perceptible.  Apparently  it  was  under  Basil's  influence,  first, 
that  monastic  societies — existing  before  in  retired  country 
districts — were  introduced  into  towns. 

The  impressive  features  of  monastic  rule,  its  sudden 
popularity,  and  its  power  to  lay  hold  of  individuals,  were 
reported  in  the  West  as  a  rumour,  and  it  was  soon  to  be 
realised  among  themselves.  Augustine,  before  his  conver- 
sion (about  385),  heard  at  Milan  of  the  life  of  Antony,  and 
records  the  impression  which  the  report  made  on  him.^ 
Also  his  friend  Pontitianus  told  him  how  he  had  been  one  of  a 
group  of  four  officers  of  the  Imperial  court  at  Treves  who  one 
day  walked  by  two  and  two  in  the  public  gardens  there.     One 

^  None  of  the  "Rules"  ascribed  to  names  of  the  fourth  century  (they  are 
collected  by  Holstenius,  Codex  Regularum,  i.  par.  1663)  are  in  their  original 
form.  They  are  believed  to  have  been  modified  under  the  influence  of  later 
experience.  Two  bear  the  name  of  Pachomius  and  two  that  of  Basil  of 
Caesarea.  The  shorter  of  the  latter,  Spos  /car'  iiriTOfi-riv,  is  regarded  as  nearly 
representing  Basil's  own  work.     Ojjera,  Garuier's  ed.,  p.  199. 

*  Con/,  viii.  6. 


296       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

pair  stumbling  on  a  hut  where  some  religious  persons  had 
begun  to  live  a  recluse  life,  found  there  the  life  of  Antony. 
And  after  looking  into  it,  one  of  them,  deeply  moved,  said 
to  the  other,  "  What  is  the  utmost  we  are  aiming  at  ? 
Imperial  favour  ?  and  how  precarious  it  is !  and  how  long 
shall  we  be  of  attaining  it?  And  to  think  that  I  could 
become  the  friend  of  God  this  very  moment ! "  So  after  a 
little  agitated  meditation  he  continued,  "  I  have  broken  with 
my  former  purposes,  and  am  determined  to  serve  God.  I 
begin  here  and  now.  If  you  do  not  choose  to  imitate  me, 
do  not  oppose  me."  Whereupon  the  other  declared  himself 
to  be  his  associate  in  that  warfare  and  reward.  Then 
Pontitianus,  with  the  fourth  of  the  company,  coming  in 
search  of  the  first  two,  was  told  of  their  decision ;  and 
though  they  were  not  minded  to  share  it,  yet  they  lamented 
their  own  case,  and  begged  the  prayers  of  the  others.  So 
two  remained  in  the  hut,  and  two  returned  to  their  quarters. 
The  first  two  were  both  of  them  betrothed ;  the  ladies,  when 
they  heard  what  had  happened,  dedicated  their  virginity  to 
God. 

But,  though  Augustine  did  not  yet  know  it,  Ambrose 
had  already  founded  a  religious  house  in  Milan ;  and  the 
West  already  had  its  famous  hermit  in  Martin  of  Tours, 
whose  sacrifices  and  conflicts,  joined  to  his  resolute  and 
commanding  character,  were  thought  to  place  him  on  terms 
of  equality  with  the  greatest  ascetics  of  the  East.  He  had 
passed  from  a  soldier's  life  to  that  of  a  religious  recluse,  and 
lived  as  such  in  various  places  before  he  was  called  to  the 
bishopric  of  Tours.^ 

From  this  time  the  monastic  life  spread  rapidly  in  the 
West,  beginning  with  Italy,  Africa,  Northern  and  Southern 
Gaul.  Ambrose  in  Italy,  Martin  in  Northern  Gaul,  and 
Cassianus  in  Southern,  impelled  the  movement.  The 
authority  of  Athanasius  had  already  recommended  it  in 
Rome,  and  there  the  zeal  of  Jerome  called  forth  warm 
support  and  also  bitter  opposition.  In  Africa  the  system 
had   the   support  of  Augustine   and   of    the    more    devout 

^  Sulp.  Severua,  VUa. 


313-451]  MONASTICISM  297 

clergy ;  but  there  also  a  popular  sentiment  of  irritation  and 
contempt  was  strongly  manifested.^ 

In  reference  to  this  sentiment,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  the  asceticism  which  withdrew  from  ordinary  life, 
renounced  possessions,  and  affected  visible  privation,  was 
native  to  the  East ;  but  in  the  West  it  was  an  importation. 
When  the  new  tendency  began  to  operate  extensively,  many 
in  the  West  regarded  it  with  dislike  and  resentment.  Some 
might  be  irritated  by  the  disturbance  to  families  and  break- 
ing of  social  ties ;  some  might  be  unwilling  to  think  of  their 
religion  as  demanding  such  sacrifices ;  some  might  recoil 
from  the  sordid  aspects  of  the  business,  and  from  what 
struck  them  as  its  extravagance.  But  there  were  those 
also  who  discerned  the  principles  involved  in  the  enthusiasm, 
and  disapproved  of  them.  The  resistance,  therefore,  while 
it  included  much  that  was  worldly,  found  also  some  very 
respectable  representatives.  But  it  was  borne  down  by  the 
general  sentiment  of  religious  people.  Most  of  these  took 
it  as  settled,  not  only  that  the  monastic  life  embodied  a  high 
efifort  of  Christian  virtue,  and  that  it  offered  the  best  method 
of  seeking  salvation,  but  that  it  was,  in  fact,  the  appropriate 
form  of  thorough  decision, — of  forsaking  sin,  renouncing  self, 
and  following  Christ.  Hence  the  more  ordinary  Christianity, 
that  which  was  contented  to  be  the  more  ordinary,  was 
relatively  imperfect:  nevertheless,  it  might  suffice  as  a 
Christianity  of  the  lower  grade.  The  inferences  which  these 
positions  were  to  yield  were  not  yet  all  clearly  drawn. 
They  were  destined  to  affect  profoundly  the  moral  life  of 
Christendom. 

The  best  way,  probably,  of  learning  what  the  early 
monastic  mood  was,  how  it  felt  itself  related  to  both  worlds, 
is  to  read  the  life  of  Martin  of  Tours  by  Sulpicius  Severus,^ 
along  with  the  Dialogues  in  which  he  compares  the  glories 
of  Eastern  and  Western  monks.  The  order  of  a  monastic 
house  may  be  gathered  from  any  of  the  rules  already  re- 
ferred to  (p.  295).     The  details  of  dress,  of  admission  and 

*  Salvian,  De  Ouhem.  Dei,  viii.  4. 

■  In  Corpus  Scriptorum  Latin,  i.,  Vienna,  1866. 


298       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

subsequent  life,  of  nightly  and  daily  worship,  may  be  found, 
with  a  great  deal  of  curious  material,  in  the  first  four  books 
of  John  Cassianus,  de  Institutis  Co&nobiorum?-  The  remain- 
ing eight  books  are  occupied  with  the  eight  principal  vices 
against  which  monks  have  to  contend ;  which  are  tendencies 
to  gluttony,  impurity,  covetousness,  anger,  sadness  (mental 
depression),  ahedia  (indifference,  often  in  the  form  of  a 
restlessness  which  can  settle  to  nothing),  vainglory,  and 
pride.  A  fuller  survey  of  Christian  duty  and  attainment, 
according  to  the  views  cherished  in  early  monasteries,  may 
be  found  in  another  work  of  Cassianus,  Collationes  Fatru7n, 
in  which  he  professes  to  report  discourses  addressed  to  their 
monks  by  eminent  Egyptian  abbots.  The  controversial 
defence  of  the  system  against  opponents  is  contained  in 
works  by  Jerome  against  Jovinian  and  Vigilantius.^  His 
positions  were  reviewed  and  moderated  by  Augustine.^ 

Jovinian  (about  A.D.  390,  d.  before  409)  did  not  argue 
against  the  celibate  life ;  he  was  a  celibate  himself ;  but  he 
denied  the  superior  merit  ascribed  to  it,  as  well  as  to  fasting 
and  martyrdom,  and  thus  would  have  cut  the  roots  of  the 
current  enthusiasm.  He  appears  first  at  Eome,  afterwards 
at  Milan.  Vigilantius  of  Calagurrae  in  Aquitania  (after 
394),  worked  as  a  priest  in  Spain  and  Gaul.  He,  too, 
objected  to  the  honours  paid  to  martyrs  and  their  relics, 
and,  like  Jovinian,  he  challenged  the  exaggerated  estimate 
of  monastic  holiness.  Also  he  opposed  the  tendency  to 
celibacy  of  the  clergy,  partly  on  the  ground  that  the  moral 
effects  were  often  bad. 

Vigilantius,  after  his  death,  was  regarded  as  a  heretic. 
The  teaching  of  Jovinian  was  condemned  at  Eome  during 
his  lifetime.  Jovinian,  perhaps,  went  deeper  of  the  two  into 
theological  theory.  He  was  charged  with  holding  that 
those  baptized  with  the  Spirit  cannot  sin ;  that  all  sins  are 
equal;  that  in  the  next  world  there  is  but  one  degree  of 
punishment  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  reward  on  the  other, 

^  In  Corpus  Scriptorum  Latin.,  vols.  xiii.  and  xvii.,  AHndob.  1886-88. 
2  Hieron.  Adv.  Jovinianum  and  Contra  Figilantium,  0pp.  iv.  2,  p.  214. 
^  De  bono  conjugali  and  Retract,  ii.  22. 


313-451]  MONASTICISM  299 

These  charges  seem  to  indicate,  on  Jovinian's  part,  specula- 
tions based  on  the  Pauline  writings,  and  probably  misunder- 
stood by  those  who  reported  them.  Both  the  men  evinced 
strong  convictions  and  steadfast  character  in  encountering, 
as  they  did,  the  stream  of  sentiment  which  ran  in  their  day ; 
and  it  might  well  be  that  the  strain  of  so  diflHcult  a  position 
betrayed  them  into  some  exaggerations.  They  reveal  to  us 
religious  earnestness  opposed  to  the  growing  superstitions, 
which  has  left  little  trace  otherwise.^ 

The  ascetic  life,  as  placed  under  rule  in  the  monastery, 
was  accepted  and  accredited  by  the  Church ;  and  both  as 
a  fact  and  as  a  force  it  became  an  element  of  first  rate 
importance  in  practical  Christianity.  It  agreed  with  the 
asceticism  of  the  avayjx^pr^Toi  (that  of  Antony  and  his 
followers)  in  prescribing  the  sacrifice  of  all  possessions, 
though,  in  practice,  life  in  the  monastery  was  less  rude 
and  precarious  than  life  in  the  desert,  It  added  to  mere 
asceticism  the  advantage  of  rules,  and  especially  it  restored 
something  of  the  social  tie.  The  ascetic,  pure  and  simple, 
broke  loose  from  all  human  ties,  as  if  they  were  all  nets 
to  ensnare  him,  and  as  if  sheer  individualism  made  a  man 
ready  for  God.  The  system  of  the  monastery  still  sacrificed 
the  same  ties,  but  so  far  replaced  them,  in  that  a  company 
of  men  or  women  living  together  must  own  relations  and 
obhgations.  Still  further,  a  great  element  in  the  monastery 
was  the  obligation  to  obey  the  ruler.  At  first,  probably, 
this  obtained  only  in  the  degree  necessary  for  good  order  in 
a  religious  house.  But  it  was  early  recognised  as  furnishing 
the  opportunity  for  mortifying  self-will.  The  habit  of  com- 
plete submission  to  men  or  women  clothed  with  authority 
found  here  a  special  consecration.  It  became  one  of  the 
recognised  points  of  Christian  perfection. 

The  significance  and  the  power  of  the  movement  lay 
after  all  in  this, — it  embodied  an  effort  to  give  effect  to  one 

*  Besides  references  in  last  page,  Siricii  Epist.  7  ;  Ambrosii  Rescript,  ad. 
Sir.  Ejmt.  42  ;  Aug.  Ep.  35  ;  De  Hccr.  c.  82  ;  G.  B.  Lindner,  de  Joviniano 
et  Vigil.,  8vo,  Lips.  1839  ;  Haller,  Jovinianus  in  T^cte  u.  Unters.  N.  F.  ii.  2 
Lips.  1897. 


300       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

of  the  most  fundamental  truths  of  Christianity.  Genuine 
Christianity  includes  the  surrender  to  a  new  principle,  the 
recognition  of  a  new  master,  the  response  to  a  new  motive, 
and  the  acceptance  of  all  sacrifices  which  so  great  a  change 
implies.  Life  is  to  move  to  a  new  goal,  and  concentrate  on 
one  great  attainment.  "  Except  a  man  forsake  all  that  he 
hath,  he  cannot  be  My  disciple."  "  Take  up  the  cross,  and 
follow  Me."  Up  and  down,  the  churches  we  may  be  sure 
there  were  not  a  few  Christians  in  whom  this  had  begun,  in 
whom  it  was  going  on.  But  the  general  aspect  of  things 
seemed  rather  to  imply  a  consent  of  Christians  that  nothing 
so  serious  should  be  pressed.  The  old  heroisms  of  the 
persecutions  had  ceased.  The  tide  of  easy-going  converts 
swelled  the  churches.  A  man's  Christianity  passed  un- 
challenged if,  having  once  been  baptized,  perhaps  in  infancy, 
he  maintained  a  negative  goodness,  joined  with  some  atten- 
tion to  ordinances.  The  worst  of  it  was,  that  the  way  of 
conceiving  Christian  principles  which,  it  may  be  said,  was 
universal,  weakened  in  an  extraordinary  degree  the  power  of 
challenging  this  nominal  Christianity,  even  on  the  part  of 
those  who  felt  it  to  be  dangerously  defective.  The  decisive 
something  had  taken  place  at  baptism,  and  after  that  it 
seemed  the  only  question  that  could  be  raised  was  the 
question  of  a  little  more  or  a  little  less  of  Christian  observ- 
ance. Meanwhile  this  "  Christianity,"  which  was  less  and 
less  distinguishable  from  indifference,  lived  on  easy  terms 
with  the  manners  and  the  spirit  of  the  decadent  empire. 
Against  it  the  spirit  of  Christianity  itself  revolted.  Men 
who  were  awakened,  even  if  they  did  not  judge  others, 
still  refused  to  be  content  for  themselves  with  so  dubious 
a  religion.  And,  in  the  spirit  of  their  time,  they  de- 
manded that  the  genuine  Christianity  should  have  a  definite 
outward  form,  so  that  one  could  make  sure  of  it.  Asceticism 
was  the  answer  to  that  demand.  It  has  a  deep  meaning 
that  the  monastic  life  came  to  be  spoken  of  as  "  religion," 
and  the  entrance  on  it  as  "conversion,"  and  that  Jerome 
could  say  that  to  become  a  monk  was  to  have,  as  it  were, 
a  second  baptisnL     The  monastery  was  not  to  question  the 


313-451]  MONASTICISM  301 

validity  of  the  common  Christianity  which  the  Church 
sanctioned ;  but  the  monk  was  resolved  not  to  be  content 
with  it  for  himself. 

The  external  form  which  was  consecrated  to  hold  this 
place  was,  after  all,  a  human  contrivance.  And  we  may 
regard  it  as  dangerously  misleading.  We  may  agree  with 
Luther  that  the  common  callings  of  human  life  supply  the 
proper  opportunities  and  the  proper  discipline  for  a  Chris- 
tian. We  may  be  persuaded  that  both  by  what  it  claimed 
for  itself,  and  by  what  it  implied  as  to  the  outside 
Christianity,  this  system  wrought  indefinite  confusion  in 
men's  thoughts  regarding  Christian  duty  and  attainment. 
But,  whatever  we  may  think  to  be  the  dangers  or  the  errors 
of  monasticism,  we  must  not  belittle  the  enthusiasm  which 
flowed  into  the  monasteries. 

The  general  state  of  the  Church  was  depressing,  and 
undoubtedly  the  monasteries  themselves  very  often  shared 
in  the  untoward  tendencies  of  the  time.  But  an  effort  in 
favour  of  more  thorough  and  strenuous  Christianity  was  the 
spring  of  the  movement.  When  we  can  follow  the  steps  of 
individuals — of  Basil,  of  the  Gregories,  of  Chrysostom — we 
often  find  that  a  gracious  religious  life,  pervading  a  whole 
family  circle,  has  nursed  the  thoughts  and  purposes  which 
led  the  individual  to  the  ascetic  life ;  and,  in  other  cases, 
the  purpose  was  bom  in  the  experience  of  a  great  change 
in  which  men  felt  themselves  turning  from  sin  to  God. 
Hence  Augustine  has  no  difficulty  in  appeahng  to  the  move- 
ment as  a  proof  of  the  divinity  of  Christian  religion.  It 
was  seen  exerting  a  power  which  no  other  religion  could 
rivaL 

Certainly  from  this  point  of  view  one  must  own  the 
energy  revealed  by  th6  Christianity  of  the  fourth  century. 
Environed  as  the  Church  is  with  relaxing  and  lowering 
influences,  moving  away  from  the  old  heroisms  of  the  perse- 
cutions, torn  by  heresies,  swamped  with  worldliness  and  with 
worldlings,  we  see  a  great  uprising  of  men  who  claim  to 
be  Christian  in  another  style.  A  few  begin,  but  they  begin 
enthusiastically    and    unreservedly,   and   in    all    directions 


302       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

kindred  souls  catch  fire,  and  resolve  not  to  be  left 
behind. 

As  to  the  method  from  which  so  much  was  hoped,  its 
concentration  and  its  reiteration  could,  no  doubt,  produce 
habits  of  religious  thought  and  feeling  which  were  remark- 
able. They  were  not  always  healthy.  However  the  plan 
might  answer  in  some  cases,  yet  when  presented,  as  it  was, 
as  the  true  form  of  sincere  Christianity,  it  was  doomed  to 
prove  a  sad  mistake.  It  was  essentially  artificial,  external, 
one-sided ;  an  experiment  made  by  the  young  Church,  as  it 
is  often  made  still,  at  the  same  stage,  by  the  young  Chris- 
tian. It  must  be  remembered  that  this  life  did  not  then 
contemplate  systematic  service  of  others ; — everything  was 
concentrated  on  the  man's  own  perfecting.  It  was  not 
wonderful  that  morbid  symptoms  were  frequent.  The 
Tristitia  and  the  Acedia  of  Cassian's  book  were  only  in- 
stances of  a  large  class  of  effects  due  to  an  unhealthy 
discipline.  Sometimes  mere  intellectual  and  moral  torpor 
resulted. 

The  stimulus  which  was  applied  to  the  fancy  and  to 
nervous  tendencies,  is  revealed  also  by  the  extraordinary 
harvest  of  visions,  demoniacal  assaults,  and  miracles  which 
followed  in  its  wake.  The  occurrence  of  some  marvels 
had  been  associated  all  along  with  Christian  history,  in 
times  of  persecution  especially,  and  in  other  cases  of  great 
trial.  But  both  in  type  and  in  number  these  had  hitherto 
occupied  a  comparatively  modest  place ;  and  the  Christian 
feeling  had  been  that  miracles  comparable  to  the  gospel 
miracles  had  for  good  reasons  passed  away.  But  from 
Antony  onwards  the  miraculous  element  increases,  and  by 
the  end  of  the  fourth  century  it  had  overflowed  the  world. 
Asceticism  was  one  cause ;  another,  which  operated  in  the 
same  way,  was  the  mood  of  mind  now  prevailing  in  regard 
to  the  relics  of  the  saints.  Illustrations  of  the  first  may 
be  found  abundantly  in  Sulpicius  Severus.^  For  the  effect  of 
relics,  note  how  Augustine,  who,  in  earlier  days,  recognised 
the  comparative  absence  of  the  miraculous  from  Christian 

^  Especially  the  Dialogi, 


313-451]  MONASTICISM  303 

experience,  in  later  life  qualifies  and  virtually  retracts  the 
statement.^  For  in  the  meantime  not  only  had  asceticism 
begun  to  bear  fruit,  but  the  relics  of  St.  Stephen  had  come 
into  Africa,  and  miracles  everywhere  followed  in  their  train ; 
and  such  miracles !  ^ 

Various  motives  led  men  to  the  monasteries.  Even  the 
religious  impulse  included  different  elements,  which  might 
be  mingled  in  different  degrees.  First,  there  was  the  feeling 
that  a  life  which  aims  at  friendship  with  God  ought  to  in- 
clude an  element  of  self-punishment.  The  ascetic  pain  was 
to  operate  as  expiating  sin.  Secondly,  as  already  suggested, 
it  was  a  way  of  trampling  on  the  material  element  and  on 
its  claims,  a  way  of  achieving  emancipation  from  the  world 
of  sense  and  deception.  This  associated  itself  with  ideas  of 
the  essential  baseness  of  matter ;  also,  with  aspiration  after 
the  aristocratic  intellectualism  of  the  philosophers.  Thirdly, 
Christianity  demands  and  promises  a  supremacy  of  spiritual 
affections,  a  subjugation  of  all  else  to  the  main  aim.  The 
ascetic  life  offered  itself  as  the  way  of  being  true  to  this  faith. 
And  this  was  the  motive  most  akin  to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel, 
— however  legal  and  external  the  method  was  which  it 
embraced.  Fourthly,  it  was  in  general  a  way  of  testing  one's 
own  sincerity ;  religion  that  goes  too  easy  may  be  suspected ; 
sacrifice  accepted  tests  devotion.  Fifthly,  in  all  these  ways 
and  in  others  it  was  a  methodism, — a  ruled-off  way  of  being 
good, — so  plain  and  distinctive  that  one  might  rest  in  it, 
dismissing  questions  and  doubts.  How  dear  this  is  to 
human  hearts  a  thousand  instances  have  proved ! 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  finally,  that  persons  could  become 
monks  and  nuns  without  experiencing  very  deeply  the 
peculiar  influences  of  the  system.  Almost  from  the  be- 
ginning there  were  low  types  of  monastic  life,  and  low 
motives  leading  men  to  embrace  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  monasteries  sometimes  became  simply  places  of  shelter 

^  Retract,  i.  13.  7.  See  also  a  case  in  De  Mir,  S.  Stephani  ad  Evodiv/niy 
ii.  3,  in  Aug.  0pp.  vii.  App. 

*  See  d«  CivUaU,  xxii.  8,  for  specimens.  Four  are  cases  of  raising  the 
dead. 


304  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

for  people  who  could  have  found  shelter  nowhere  else,  and 
who  were  glad  of  a  quiet  and  regulated  life. 


Divergences 

The  monks  were  laymen,  and  they  must  often  have  felt 
themselves  to  be  more  pious  than  many  of  the  clergy ;  they 
practised  what  was  held  to  be  a  more  complete  Christianity. 
It  was  obvious,  therefore,  that  the  anarchical  and  revolutionary 
spirit  might  develop  among  them.  But  very  powerful  and 
influential  men  had  exerted  themselves  to  secure  for  the 
monastic  life  on  the  one  hand  the  approbation,  on  the  other 
hand  the  control  of  the  official  Church.  The  monasteries 
took  their  place  as  subject  to  the  bishop,  and  as  participant, 
through  a  resident  presbyter  or  otherwise,  in  the  regulated 
worship  of  the  Church.  Still,  ascetic  life  was  apt  to  break 
out  into  vehement  excitement,  or  into  extravagant  and 
demonstrative  self-torture.  And  sometimes  these  forces 
carried  the  monks  into  excesses  which  had  to  be  condemned 
as  schismatic  or  heretical.  Some  lived  a  wandering  gipsy 
life  sustained  by  herbs  (^oaKol).  Some  grouped  themselves 
in  towns  in  small  companies  and  earned  a  common  liveli- 
hood without  much  rule,  and  so  often  with  no  good  repute 
(Eemoboth,  also  Sarabaites).  Some  refused  to  hold  Christian 
fellowship  with  any  who  lived  in  marriage,  or  who  retained 
private  property  (Apostolici).  The  followers  of  Audius 
declared  separation  from  the  official  Church  in  Syria,  ap- 
parently on  account  of  its  laxity  (Audiarii).  The  Euchites 
lived  in  constant  prayer,  begging  for  their  support,  denounc- 
ing even  the  earning  of  wages  by  labour ;  and  they  under- 
valued the  sacraments.  Some  of  the  monasteries  in  the 
East,  previously  in  good  repute,  became  infected  with  this 
spirit.  The  Eustachians,  whose  tendencies  were  imputed  to 
Eustathius  of  Sebaste,  practically  set  up  a  Christianity  and 
a  church  of  their  own.  They  denied  the  possible  salvation 
of  all  married  people,  and  of  all  rich  people,  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  martyr  feasts  and  Agapse,  and  rejected 
the  ministrations  of  married  priests.     They  were  condemned 


31^-451]  MONASTICISM  305 

at  the  synod  of  Gangra  in  Paphlagonia  (after  360).  "Stylites" 
was  the  name  given  to  ascetics  who,  like  Symeon  (near 
Antioch),  spent  years  on  the  top  of  a  pillar.  These  anomalies 
gave  way,  sooner  or  later,  to  the  powerful  influences  exerted 
to  bring  the  monastic  institute  into  harmony  with  the 
system  of  the  Church. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  morbid  symptoms  are  not  less 
apparent.  Almost  from  the  beginning  we  encounter  com- 
plaints of  low  types  of  monastic  life,  and  low  motives  lead- 
ing men  to  embrace  it.  Thus  early  did  it  appear  that  the 
acceptance  of  an  external  law,  however  holy  it  seemed  to  be, 
might  be  very  far  indeed  from  fellowship  with  Christ. 


•o 


CHAPTEE   XIX 

The  Clergy 

Bingham,  Ckrist.  Antiq.  i.  and  ii.    Tomassini,  Vetus  et  Nova  Disciplina, 

Paris,  1691. 

The  rapid  increase  in  the  number  of  Christian  worshippers 
naturally  required  great  additions  to  the  clerical  staff. 
Besides  the  grades  already  mentioned,  attendants  on  the 
sick  (Parabolani)  and  gravediggers  (/coiridraL — fossores)  now 
appear ;  they  became  very  numerous  in  the  great  churches, 
and  took  the  form  of  guilds  under  the  bishops.  The  civil 
law  sought  to  limit  their  number ;  ^  for  turbulent  bishops 
could  employ  them  as  agents  in  disturbing  the  peace ;  and 
those  who  wished  to  escape  public  burdens  could  get  them- 
selves enrolled  for  nominal  service  in  these  orders.  A 
similar  increase,  though  not  so  great,  took  place  in  all  the 
ordines  minores  (p.  248). 

In  the  Diaconate,  however,  the  increase  was  not  so 
great ;  indeed  some  churches,  at  least  the  church  of  Kome, 
held  to  the  number  seven.  The  necessities  of  the  time 
were  met  rather  by  multiplying  the  sub-deacons.  The 
deacons  proper,  therefore,  rose  in  importance  as  the  special 
agents  of  the  bishop,  his  eyes  and  hands  in  worship,  finance, 
charities,  and  discipline.  Signs  appear  that,  conscious  of 
their  own  importance,  the  deacons  were  disposed  in  some 
cases  to  take  precedence  of  the  presbyters.^  An  official  who 
is  found  in  great  churches  from  the  very  beginning  of  this 

*  Five  hundred  and  six  hundred  Parabolani  at  different  times  in  Alex- 
andria, nine  hundred  and  fifty  and  eleven  hundred  ^l  Constantinople. 
^  Cone.  Ardai.f  Can.  15. 


A.D.  313-451]  THE   CLERGY  807 

period,  is  the  leading  deacon  or  archdeacon ;  he  acts  as 
chief  of  the  staff  to  the  bishop.  That  was  the  position  of 
Athanasius  at  Alexandria  before  he  was  elevated  to  the 
episcopate.  The  deacon  who  held  this  post  was  a  natural 
candidate .  for  the  bishop's  place  in  case  of  a  vacancy  ;  and 
ordination  to  the  higher  rank  of  presbyter  might  seem  to  him 
unwelcome  as  tending  to  spoil  his  prospects  (Hier.  in  Ez.  48). 

Presbyters  necessarily  became  much  more  numerous,  for 
ministration  of  ordinances  required  more  ministers.  As 
the  number  of  Christians  increased  in  each  locality,  the  ex- 
pedient adopted  was  to  increase  the  staff  of  presbyters ;  and 
these  at  first,  speaking  generally,  were  equally  related  to 
the  whole  flock,  and  ministered  to  particular  sections  of  it 
as  might  from  time  to  time  be  arranged.  The  alternative  plan 
of  multiplying  bishoprics  could  not  but  seem  likely  to  lower 
the  dignity  and  influence  of  bishops,  and  it  might  also  seem 
to  infer  more  frequent  and  serious  rearrangement.  New 
bishoprics  were  therefore  discouraged,  except  in  the  case  of 
mission  fields,  and  in  the  case  of  towns  which  rose  into  new 
importance  sufficient  to  justify  the  presence  of  a  bishop 
(Can.  Sardica,  6). 

Already,  however,  from  an  older  time  had  come  down 
the  institution  of  country  bishops  (;)^ft)/)e7r/(7/co7rot),  who 
ministered  to  village  communities,  but  sometimes  to  a 
cluster  of  villages  each  with  its  own  presbyter  (Bas.  Ep. 
142,  188,  290).  Such  villages,  on  the  system  now  preferred, 
would  be  regarded  as  sufficiently  provided  for  by  a  presbyter 
under  the  city  bishop.  The  older  system  therefore  began 
to  be  discouraged  over  the  larger  part  of  the  Church  (Ancyra, 
(314),  Can.  13;  Antioch  (341),  Can.  19  ;  Neocas.  Can.  14,  and 
Nic.  Can.  8),  the  powers  of  the  chorepiscopoi  were  limited, 
and  they  were  placed  under  the  superintendence  of  the  city 
bishop ;  but  they  continued  to  exist  for  a  considerable  time. 
Of  the  numerous  bishops  in  Africa  some  must  have  been 
practically  chorepiscopoi;  but  they  do  not  seem  to  have 
ranked  lower  than  the  city  bishops  of  those  provinces. 

Presbyters  put  in  charge  of  country  places  might 
acquire   a   durable   relation    to    the    portion    of    the    flock 


308       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

intrusted  to  them  sooner  than  city  presbyters  did ;  for  the 
latter  might  more  easily  take  duties  in  rotation  and  circulate 
from  one  congregation  to  another;  and  distance  helped  to 
give  greater  independence  to  the  country  parts  of  a  bishop's 
"parish."  But  alike  in  the  town  and  in  the  district 
attached  to  it,  the  Christians  were  regarded  as  members  of 
one  episcopal  flock.  And  in  the  cities  themselves  it  was 
ere  long  found  expedient  to  attach  particular  presbyters 
more  or  less  permanently  to  particular  churches.  This  can 
be  proved  for  Alexandria  in  the  fourth  century,  and  for 
Eome  and  Constantinople  in  the  fifth.  It  was  the  germ 
of  the  later  parochial  system.  Such  a  presbyter  gradually 
became  to  his  congregation  what  the  bishop  had  been  to 
the  early  Christian  community  of  the  whole  place ;  he  was 
their  pastor  and  they  his  flock ;  only  he  was  not  competent 
to  ordain  office-bearers,  and  they  could  not  receive  a 
complete  separate  organisation.  At  Eome,  a  presbyter 
so  situated  did  not  himself  consecrate  the  sacramental 
elements,  but  dispensed  what  the  bishop  had  consecrated 
previously  (Innoc.  i.  Ep.  ad  Decentium).  The  city  presbyters 
took  precedence  of  the  country  ones. 

An  arch-presbyter,  corresponding  among  the  presbyters 
to  the  archdeacon  among  deacons,  existed;  but  the  office 
never  attained  great  importance. 

The  right  of  the  bishop  to  nominate  to  vacant  positions 
among  the  inferior  clergy  was  now  well  established.  Such 
nominations,  especially  the  more  important,  were  no  doubt 
usually  made  with  the  advice  of  his  clergy.  In  regard  to 
presbyters  the  view  persisted,  and  was  expressed  in  the  ordina- 
tion service,  that  they  took  office  by  the  consent  of  the  con- 
gregation ;  but  practically  this  was  tending  to  become  a  form. 

In  regard  to  the  bishops  themselves,  the  ancient  right 
of  a  church  to  elect  its  own  bishop  was  more  vividly 
remembered  ;  for  the  bishop  was  that  one  person  with  whom 
every  Christian  must  hold  relations,  so  that  his  appoint- 
ment created  a  definite  and  a  pervading  interest  in  the 
whole  Christian  community.  But  while  in  theory  the  clergy 
and  the  people  must  assent  to  the  election,  the  neighbouring 


313-461]  THE   CLERGY  309 

bishops,  or  more  precisely,  the  bishops  of  the  province,  who 
were  to  consecrate,  and  who  must  receive  the  new  bishop 
into  their  fellowship,  had  also  a  right  to  be  satisfied,  both  as 
to  the  regularity  of  the  proceedings  and  as  to  the  com- 
petency of  the  man.  And  their  power  in  the  election 
preponderated.  The  wishes  of  the  local  clergy  and  the 
people  were  not  without  influence,  especially  if  they  were 
united  in  their  choice ;  and  they  were  occasionally  exerted 
with  such  decision  as  to  be  irresistible.  But  we  cannot 
trace  adequate  securities  for  those  wishes  being  definitely 
ascertained,  or  regularly  made  effectual.  Moreover,  the 
growing  numbers  of  Catholics  in  each  bishopric  would 
increase  the  difficulty  of  collecting  and  interpreting  the 
popular  voice.  Very  often,  therefore,  the  person  preferred 
by  the  bishops  of  the  province  and  approved  by  the  Metro- 
politan could  be  appointed.  Still  the  "  election  "  proceeded 
in  face  of  the  clergy  and  people,  and  with  some  forms  of 
inviting  their  suffrage ;  and  the  theory  was  never  allowed 
altogether  to  drop,  that  the  choice  of  the  clergy  and  assent  of 
the  people  were  required.  In  most  cases,  one  may  believe, 
friction  was  avoided  by  circumspection  and  good  sense 
on  the  part  of  the  provincial  bishops  who  presided.  The 
presence  of  three  bishops  was  necessary  to  a  canonically 
regular  consecration  ;  and  that  rite  seems  to  have  very  often 
taken  place  upon  the  spot,  as  soon  as  the  election  was  over. 
While  the  ordinary  course  of  things  followed  these  lines,  great 
divergences  might  take  place.  A  surge  of  popular  feeling 
might  lead  to  the  disregard  of  ordinary  rules,  as  in  the  case 
of  Ambrose  of  Milan  and  others.  On  the  other  hand, 
imperial  favour  often  determined  the  appointment  to 
great  bishoprics,  especially  in  the  East. 

The  grounds  of  necessity  and  expediency  which  had  led 
to  the  institution  of  synods,  had  led  further  to  these  synods 
being  provincial,  i.e.  composed  of  the  bishops  of  each 
(pohtical)  province  of  the  empire.  The  same  reasons  had 
led  to  one  bishop  being  fixed  on  as  the  convener  and 
president  of  these  meetings,  as  the  depositary  of  any  powers 
which  might  be  usefully  exerted  between  the  meetings,  and 


310       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

as  the  authorised  organ  of  communication  with  other  regions 
of  the  Church.  He  had  a  right  of  visitation  in  his  province, 
and  to  see  that  rules  were  not  broken.  The  ordinary 
bishops  required  his  permission  to  make  distant  journeys. 

This  order  was  well  established  at  the  beginning  of  the 
period  now  before  us.  The  president  was  usually  bishop  of 
the  city,  recognised  as  the  political  metropolis  of  the  province 
(hence  "metropolitan"),  but  not  always.  In  Africa  proper,  the 
bishop  of  Carthage  was  the  metropolitan  by  right,  while  in 
Numidia  and  Mauretania  the  leading  bishops  (Senes)  were  not 
occupants  of  one  fixed  see.  In  Pontus  the  oldest  bishop  of 
the  province  was  the  presiding  person.  Generally,  however, 
*  the  civil  precedency  of  the  metropolis  determined  also  the 
ecclesiastical  primacy  of  its  bishop.  Hence  an  increase  of 
metropolitans  is  said  to  have  taken  place  when  Diocletian 
increased  the  number  of  the  provinces  by  subdivision.  But 
in  Italy  there  had  not  been  quite  the  same  division  into 
provinces  which  obtained  elsewhere  in  the  empire ;  and 
there  the  metropolitan  development  was  hindered  still 
further  by  the  impressive  influence  of  Eome.  Diocletian 
at  length  instituted  eighteen  provinces  in  Italy ;  but  that 
made  no  great  alteration  ecclesiastically  in  regard  to  the 
ten  provinces  of  lower  Italy.  In  Northern  Italy,  Milan, 
Ravenna,  and  Aquileia  acquired  metropolitan  rights  during 
the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  The  two  former  were  for  a 
time  imperial  residences.  The  council  of  Nicea  directed 
two  synods  (Can.  5)  to  be  held  in  each  province  yearly; 
but  circumstances  might,  and  often  did,  prevent  compliance 
with  the  rules.  The  synods  could  frame  rules  which  were 
imperative  on  Christians  within  the  province  ;  they  were 
the  court  of  appeal  in  complaints  of  lack  of  justice  at  the 
hands  of  bishops,  and,  generally,  in  disputes  regarding 
ecclesiastical  rights  ;  and  they  superintended  all  Christian 
interests  within  the  province  which  did  not  properly  fall  to 
particular  bishops.  In  these  provincial  synods  the  con- 
ceptions of  ecclesiastical  order  and  administration  were 
worked  out  which  were  proceeded  upon  in  the  oecumenical 
synods.     The  members  having  voice  and  vote  were  bishops ; 


313-451]  THE    CLEKCxY  311 

these  might  be  attended  by  some  of  their  presbyters  and 
deacons,  who  might  also  occasionally  be  allowed  to  address 
the  synod,  but  could  not  vote.  A  bishop  necessarily  absent 
might  commission  a  presbyter  to  represent  him,  who  could 
vote  in  his  name. 

It  was  felt,  however,  that  districts  greater  than  the 
provinces  constituted  units  of  church  life  and  work,  within 
which  ecclesiastical  authority  might  and  should  be  brought 
to  bear,  and  throughout  which  the  common  mind  of 
ecclesiastical  authorities  might  be  applied  to  provide  for  the 
order  and  welfare  of  tlie  Church.  Under  the  influence 
of  this  feeling  the  Patriarchates  established  themselves,  and 
were  recognised.  Here  again  the  political  divisions  of 
the  empire — themselves  dictated,  of  course,  by  natural  and 
social  cleavage — suggested  a  basis.  Under  Constantine  and 
his  successors  the  empire  was  divided  into  four  great 
praefectures,  namely,  the  East,^  Eastern  Illyricum,  Italy,  and 
the  Gauls.  These  praefectures,  again,  included  fourteen 
"  dioceses "  of  various  sizes,  each  of  which  might  in  turn 
include  many  provinces ;  as,  for  example,  the  diocese  of  the 
East  included  fifteen  provinces  and  that  of  Eome  ten. 
The  idea  of  forming  each  diocese  into  an  ecclesiastical 
province  with  a  great  bishop  at  its  head  was  entertained ; 
and  accordingly,  along  with  Alexandria  for  Egypt,  and 
Antioch  for  the  East  (in  the  more  limited  sense),  Ephesus 
was  named  for  Asia,  Csesarea  for  Pontus,  and  Heraklea  for 
Thrace  (Const.  Can.  2),  all  as  equal  ecclesiastical  magni- 
tudes. 

But  this  proved  to  be  a  somewhat  doctrinaire  attempt. 
In  truth,  there  were  three  bishoprics  which  by  the  splendour 
and  antiquity  of  the  see  outshone  all  others.  These  were 
Piome,  Alexandria,  and  Antioch.  To  these  came  to  be 
added  Constantinople, — the  new  Eome, — the  centre  of  power 

*  The  word  Oriens  in  this  period  is  ambiguous,— it  might  denote  the  Prae- 
fectura  Orientis,  or  it  jnight  denote  only  the  Dioecesis  Oriens,  one  of  the  five 
into  which  that  prsefecture  was  divided.  It  is  the  latter  and  more  limited 
sense  which  corresponds  most  nearly  to  the  ecclesiastical  Patriarchate  of 
which  Antioch  was  the  mother  see. 


312  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

and  law  for  the  Eastern  empire.  These  sees  really  held  an 
exceptional  place.  Eonie  had  oversight,  without  question, 
of  the  ten  suburbicarian  provinces  of  Italy ;  besides,  she 
stood  first  in  dignity  among  all  Christian  sees ;  and  she  had 
an  influence  through  all  the  West,  the  extent  of  which  was 
not  yet  ascertained.  Alexandria  easily  held  her  place  as 
the  presiding  see  of  the  diocese  of  Egypt,  and  Antioch 
in  the  diocese  of  the  East.  And  the  political  strength  of 
Constantinople  enabled  her  not  only  to  claim  the  obedience 
of  Thrace,  but  also  that  of  Asia,  Cappadocia,  and  Pontus. 
Sees  like  Ephesus,  Caesarea,  and  Carthage,  though  un- 
doubtedly above  the  rank  of  common  Metropolitans,  and 
allowed  to  claim  distinctive  privileges,  still  proved  unable 
to  contest  the  superior  rank  of  those  great  sees.  The  latter 
accordingly  are  known  as  Patriarchates.  At  the  close  of 
our  period,  Jerusalem,  on  the  ground  of  its  historical 
associations,  was  allowed  to  dissociate  itself  from  Antioch, 
and  its  bishop  received  Palestine  as  his  Patriarchate. 
The  name  Patriarch  begins  to  be  restricted  to  these  great 
bishops  in  the  fifth  century.  Previously  it  had  been  more 
widely  and  uncertainly  applied.  Bishops  who,  though  not 
Patriarchs,  occupied  sees  which  were  regarded  as  confer- 
ring presidency  over  dioceses  (in  the  civil  sense  of  that 
word),  or  at  all  events  as  entitled  to  the  obedience  of 
several  metropolitans,  were  often  called  exarchs, — a  name 
derived  from  the  civil  hierarchy.^ 

Patriarchal  sees  held  their  position  in  virtue  of  the  age, 
historic  importance,  and  greatness  of  those  churches.  The 
ecclesiastical  force,  however,  which  formed  the  ultima  ratio 
of  their  authority  in  case  of  need,  was  the  exclusion  from 
their  communion  of  the  bishop  who  seemed  to  give  sufficient 
cause  for  that  step.  If  the  case  was  wisely  selected,  the 
example  was  sure  to  be  followed  by  other  churches  of  the 

*  The  name  d-pxicTla-Koiros  also  had  at  this  time  no  very  settled  range  of 
attributes.  IldTras  was  the  common  name  at  Alexandria  for  their  bishop,  and 
was  superseded  there  by  the  title  of  Patriarch  in  the  seventh  century.  The 
Greeks  called  the  bishop  of  Rome  Patriarch,  but  that  title  was  not  usually 
given  to  him  in  the  West. 


313-451]  THE   CLERGY  313 

Patriarchate.  This  created  what  was  always  a  difficult  and 
perplexing  position  for  the  bishop  in  question,  and  was 
extremely  likely  to  raise  trouble  for  him  at  home.  If,  how- 
ever, the  public  opinion  of  the  churches  generally  regarded 
the  step  of  excluding  from  communion  as  unjustifiable,  the 
bishop  assailed  might  find  support  enough  to  enable  him  to 
hold  out.  But  the  situation  was  at  best  trying ;  and  even 
in  the  days  when  the  fundamental  equality  of  all  bishops 
was  most  strongly  asserted,  a  provincial  bishop  had  many 
motives  for  avoiding  unfriendly  relations  with  the  occupant 
of  the  "apostolic"  see.  Eome  earliest  realised  all  that 
could  be  made  of  this  state  of  things.  In  the  second 
century  Victor  warn  on  the  point  of  breaking  off  communion 
with  Eastern  bishops  who  followed  the  Quartodeciman 
celebration  of  Easter,  and  in  the  third  Stephen  took  a 
similar  attitude  about  heretical  baptism.  These  were  cases 
in  which  Eome  was  in  danger  of  prematurely  straining  her 
power;  but  they  reveal  her  disposition  to  assert  it. 
Innocent  i.,  who  was  Pope  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century, 
signalised  his  pontificate  by  the  boldness  with  which  he 
asserted  the  powers  of  his  see  ;  and  many  of  these  asser- 
tions were  successfully  translated  into  fact  by  the  great 
Pope  Leo  i.  a.d.  440—461.  By  these  successive  representa- 
tives, Eome,  which  was  acknowledged  to  be  the  primatial 
see,  virtually  claimed  the  whole  Church  as  her  Patriarchate. 
The  process  by  which  the  unique  authority  was  made  good 
over  all  the  West  (and  often  asserted  in  the  East),  is  a 
subject  by  itself.  It  is  enough  here  to  say,  that  the  alleged 
episcopate,  at  Eome,  of  the  Apostle  Peter  was  all  along 
the  main  ground  relied  on  by  the  Eoman  church.  But 
at  first  they  were  content  to  say  that  the  Church,  in  honour 
of  Peter,  had  agreed  to  accord  a  special  authority  to  the 
church  and  bishop  of  Eome.^  Later,  the  assertion  came  to 
be  that  to  Peter  the  Lord  had  made  promises,  which  secured 
to  the  church  in  which  he  presided,  and  to  his  successors  in 
its  chair,  perpetual  stability  in  the  true  faith  and  authority 
to  rule  the  whole  Church.^ 

1  Innoc.  I.  Ej).  29  ;  Zosira.  Ep.  2.  •  Leo  I.  £p.  10. 


314       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

General  Conditions  of  Clerical  Life 

Two  ways  of  arranging  service  in  the  Christian  ministry- 
have  been  distinguished  (p.  37);  it  could  be  undertaken  as 
an  addition,  au  honourable  and  responsible  addition,  to  some 
ordinary  calling — a  farmer's,  a  merchant's,  and  so  forth  ;  or 
it  might  become  the  sole  calling  of  a  class  of  men  who  must 
be  provided  with  a  professional  income  for  their  proper 
support.  The  first  way  of  it  prevailed  in  the  earliest 
practice  of  the  churches.  Yet  from  the  first  it  was  re- 
cognised that  approved  Christian  service  demanded  grateful 
acknowledgment ;  and  that  when  it  absorbed  much  of  a 
man's  strength  and  time,  it  was  incumbent  on  the  Christian 
brethren  to  provide  for  his  temporal  wants  (1  Cor.  ix.  14; 
Didache,  13,  15).  This  obligation  must  naturally  be  more 
stringent  when  a  laborious  ministry  was  undertaken  at  the 
call  of  the  local  church.  The  change  from  the  first  method 
to  the  second  was  still  proceeding  in  the  present  period,  but 
had  not  been  completed.  Accordingly  regulations  appear 
which  contemplate  Christian  ministers  engaged  in  secular 
callings,  but  forbid  occupations  that  were  reckoned  im- 
proper or  unbecoming,  as  well  as  offices  properly  secular 
{Can.  niib.  19,  20;  Can.  Ap.  7).  The  two  methods  evi- 
dently coexisted :  each  prevailing  more  or  less,  according  to 
the  circumstances  of  different  churches. 

It  is  quite  plain  that,  by  the  time  we  have  now  reached, 
bishops  in  larger  towns  had  to  devote  their  whole  time  to 
their  work,  and  they  had  also  to  maintain  a  representative 
position  and  show  hospitality ;  similar  considerations  applied 
in  a  less  degree  to  most  of  the  presbyters  in  such  churches, 
and  perhaps  to  all  the  deacons.  At  the  other  end  of  the 
series  some  of  the  minor  orders,  now  come  into  existence, 
would  equally  require  a  regular  provision.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  smaller  and  more  rural  churches  other  conditions 
could  prevail ;  the  gratitude  of  the  flock,  or  a  modest 
honorarium  added  to  the  gains  of  a  secular  calling,  might 
still  be  counted  recompense  enough  ;  it  is  possible  that  some 
of  the  clergy  in  the  greater  churches  also  were  similarly 


313-451]  THE    CLERGY  315 

situated.  With  this  state  of  things  we  may  connect  the 
fact  that  Christian  laymen,  especially  men  of  some  position, 
made  efforts  to  be  ordained  and  numbered  with  the  clergy 
in  order  to  escape  public  burdens. 

The  Christian  ministry,  however,  was  becoming  more 
completely  a  profession,  or  distinct  calling,  in  which  men 
could  expect  to  be  provided  for  as  to  their  temporal  wants, 
whatever  higher  aims  might  influence  them  in  addition. 
On  this  footing,  in  later  times,  young  persons  could  begin  to 
prepare  fox*  the  ministry  as  their  chosen  career.  But  as 
yet,  in  general,  a  state  of  things  continued  which  we  may 
represent  to  ourselves  in  this  way — that,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  congregation  and  its  guides  picked  out  Christian  men, 
likely  to  be  useful,  and  asked  them  to  take  the  ministry  upon 
them ;  ^  that,  on  the  other  hand,  an  aspiration  after  work 
of  this  kind  led  individuals  sometimes  to  offer  themselves 
for  service. 

A  line  of  approach  to  the  more  important  posts  had 
been  created  by  the  development  of  the  minor  orders.  In 
those  orders  lads  and  men  could  begin  official  service 
with  less  of  responsibility  on  their  own  part,  and  less  of 
risk  to  the  Church's  weU-being.  They  became  familiar 
with  ecclesiastical  duties,  were  in  contact  with  the  older 
clergy,  received  influence,  formed  habits,  acquired  insight, 
and  meanwhile  revealed  in  some  degree  their  own  char- 
acter and  aptitude ;  thus  they  could  be  promoted  step  by 
step.  It  was,  therefore,  a  system  not  of  formal  study  or 
methodical  training,  but  of  apprenticeship.  Apprenticeship 
long  continued  to  be  the  method  of  preparation  in  other  pro- 
fessions besides  the  clerical,  and  it  has  its  own  advantages 
and  disadvantages.  Among  the  latter  may  be  reckoned  this, 
that  in  churches  where  the  bishop  and  presbyters  did  not 
include  men  of  exceptional  religious  power  and  depth,  the 
tendency  among  the  "apprentices"  might  be  to  cultivate 
aptitude  for  the  external  duties  of  the  ministry,  without 
much  perception  of  its  proper  spirit.  Men  like  Basil, 
Chrysostom,  and  Augustine  exerted   themselves  to  remedy 

*  A  strong  feeling  existed  that  men  so  called  were  bound  to  respond. 


316       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

this  evil  by  inculcating  right  conceptions  of  the  nature  and 
the  responsibilities  of  the  spiritual  office.  At  all  events, 
this  line  of  approach  to  the  pastoral  care  offered  itself  so 
naturally  that  one  sees  a  tendency  to  make  a  rule  of  it. 
But  it  never  became  universal.  The  Church  could  sum- 
marily call  to  its  service  in  important,  posts  any  Christian 
it  judged  proper.  Augustine,  happening  to  make  a  journey 
from  Tagaste  to  Hippo,  and  entering  the  church  in  the 
latter  place,  was  promptly  pounced  upon  by  the  bishop  and 
his  people  to  fill  a  vacant  post  of  presbyter ;  and  he  had  to 
submit,  at  that  time  much  against  his  own  judgment. 
Ambrose,  not  yet  baptized,  nor  even  a  catechumen,  was 
suddenly  elected  bishop  of  Milan.  Such  cases,  however, 
more  and  more  became  exceptional.  To  rise  through  the 
established  grades  was  held  to  be  the  safer  practice.  Hence, 
even  when  men  were  to  be  introduced  at  once  to  the  work  of 
deacons  or  presbyters,  it  came  afterwards  to  be  reckoned  fitting 
to  pass  them  rapidly,  pro  formd,  through  the  minor  orders.^ 
Men  could  begin  their  career  on  these  lines  with  very 
little  of  mental  cultivation  or  acquired  knowledge,  and  no 
system  of  special  education  was  inculcated  or  pursued  over 
the  Church  generally.  In  particular  places  there  existed 
facilities  for  mental  training  on  Christian  lines, — at  Alex- 
andria, at  the  Palestinian  Csesarea,  at  Antioch,  and  at 
Constantinople ;  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  use  was  made  of 
these  facilities.  But  they  could  be  available  only  to  an 
inconsiderable  minority;  and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
the  system  of  apprenticeship  confined  men  to  their  own 
church  and  gave  little  scope  for  seeking  advantages 
elsewhere.  We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
attainments  of  many  Christian  ministers  were  extremely 
elementary.  Augustine  and  others  sought  to  meet  these 
wants  by  persuading  their  clergy  to  live  together  under 
superintendence,  after  the  model  of  the  monastic  life ; 
and  in  the  regulation  of  the  society  so  formed,  place  was 

*  A  monk  was  presumably  an  earnest  Christian  ;  his  life  had  given  him 
opportunity  for  meditation  ;  and  his  asceticism  recommended  him.  Hence  a 
disposition  to  seek  in  the  monasteries  recruits  for  the  clerical  life. 


313-451]  THE  CLERGY  317 

found  both  for  mental  and  for  religious  discipline.  As 
regards  the  numerous  clergy  of  the  various  grades  who  were 
not  favoured  in  some  of  these  ways,  one  can  only  say 
further,  that  reading  must  in  all  cases  have  been  regarded 
as  an  appropriate  occupation  for  men  who  served  the 
Church.  The  Scriptures,  and  more  or  less  of  the  Greek 
Christian  literature  in  the  East,  of  the  Latin  in  the  West, 
must  have  been  usually  accessible,  opening  a  way  for  a 
certain  amount  of  self-education. 

But  we  must  equally  make  room  in  our  minds  for  a 
considerable  number  of  men  who  had  profited  by  the  school 
education  of  the  period.  Eelatively  good  schools  existed  at 
all  events  in  most  large  towns,  and  were  able  to  bestow  a 
literary  training,  preparing  men  of  religious  minds  to  pur- 
sue what  further  studies  they  chose.  So  that  we  must 
think  of  the  attainments  of  the  clergy  rather  as  exceedingly 
uneven  than  as  uniformly  low.  Who  can  doubt  that  in  all 
the  great  cities  where  a  certain  culture  was  affected  by 
people  of  condition,  the  clergy — animated  by  a  strong  esprit 
de  corps  and  stimulated  by  Christian  thought  and  Christian 
controversy — would  create  among  themselves  a  certain 
standard  of  knowledge ;  and  this,  in  the  case  of  those  who 
reached  the  higher  grades,  could  not  be  contemptible. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  finally,  that  the  ranks  of  the 
clergy  were  recruited  by  some  who  had  been  in  touch  with 
all  the  culture  both  of  the  schools  and  of  the  administrative 
hierarchy  of  the  empire.  From  the  time  of  Constantine  the 
Christian  ministry  began  to  attract  remarkable  men,  at  least 
on  a  level  with  the  highest  education  of  the  time,  and  some 
of  them  of  great  force  of  character.  Men  felt  they  could 
be  more  free,  vigorous,  and  dignified  in  the  Church's  service 
than  in  the  hierarchy  of  the  State ;  but  often  that  impression 
was  itself  subordinate  to  the  more  personal  sense  of  in- 
debtedness to  Christ  and  desire  to  serve  Him.  They  came 
from  a  long  career  in  the  schools,  in  which  they  had  ex- 
hausted all  that  was  reckoned  to  the  heads  of  literary 
refinement  or  speculative  thought, — and  now  the  call  to  be 
scholars  and   teachers  in  a  higher  school  came  home  to 


318  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

them  ;  or  they  came  from  the  service  of  the  empire,  expert  in 
business  and  in  statesmanship,  to  administer  a  more  spiritual 
kingdom;  or,  after  years  of  ease  as  wealthy  Greek  and 
Eoman  gentlemen,  they  tired  of  a  life  aimless  and  self- 
indulgent,  apt  to  be  frivolous  even  when  it  was  far  from 
wholly  selfish ;  and  they  felt  a  call  to  place  their  means 
and  themselves  at  the  disposal  of  the  cause  which  compre- 
hended the  best  they  knew  or  could  conceive.  The  change 
might  follow  on  some  great  conscious  crisis  in  the  inner 
man,  or  might  be  marked  by  a  meditative  period  of  retire- 
ment, after  the  manner  of  the  monastic  life,  or  might  be 
gradually  reached  in  advancing  life,  an  attraction  that  had 
been  felt  for  years  becoming  at  last  irresistible.  In  any 
case  it  brought  to  the  service  of  the  Church  men  who  had 
freely  dealt  with  the  culture  of  the  time  in  its  heathen  as 
well  as  in  its  Christian  form,  men  who  brought  whatever 
the  age  possessed  of  reading,  or  of  eloquence,  or  of  passionate 
and  questioning  thought,  or  of  poetry,  or  of  refined  and 
gentle  life.  No  doubt  it  was  their  pious  fashion  to  utter 
warnings  against  many  of  the  paths  by  which  themselves 
had  passed ;  for  instance,  against  the  study  of  the  heathen 
classics.^  But  such  men  as  Basil,  Gregory  of  Nazianzus, 
Ambrose,  Chrysostom,  Jerome,  Augustine,  Paulinus  of  Nola, 
and  many  more  set  a  type  the  influence  of  which  was  no 
doubt  widely  felt.  Eecruits  from  the  service  of  the  State, 
in  particular,  continued  from  generation  to  generation  to  pass 
over  to  the  service  of  the  Church. 

It  was  felt  necessary  to  guard  the  clerical  function 
against  the  entrance  of  those  whose  previous  mode  of  life 
created  offence,  as  performers  in  the  theatres,  and  even  as 
soldiers,  if  the  candidate  had  followed  that  career  after  his 
baptism.  Also  slaves,  and  even  freedmen  were  inadmissible, 
unless  completely  set  free  from  the  obligations  to  an  earthly 
superior,  usually  attaching  to  those  two  classes.  Certain 
immoralities,  also,  in  the  previous  life  of  baptized  persons, 
even  if  repented,  excluded  permanently  from  clerical  ofifice, 
and  so   did  some  kinds  of  previous  marriage  which  were 

^  Basil,  irpbs  roiis  viovt. 


313-451]  THE   CLERGY  319 

held  less  reputable.  Similar  exclusion  applied  to  persons 
baptized  on  sick-bed,  because  they  were  liable  to  be  regarded 
as  having  accepted  the  ordinance  under  fear  of  death  rather 
than  by  choice.  But  in  this  case,  and  indeed  in  some  of 
the  others,  the  prudential  reasons  on  which  the  exclusion 
was  founded  could  be  overcome  by  prolonged  evidence  of 
confirmed  Christian  character.  Neophytes,  i.e.  persons  re- 
cently baptized,  had  been  from  the  beginning  specified  as 
not  eligible  for  office;  but  here,  too,  eminent  exceptions 
occurred,  as  Ambrose  and  Synesius.  As  a  rule,  a  candidate 
for  the  deaconship  was  to  be  not  less  than  twenty-five,  and 
a  presbyter  thirty  years  of  age. 

Bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons  were  not  forbidden  to 
engage  in  traffic,  handicrafts,  and  husbandry  for  their  sup- 
port. But  they  must  not  personally  travel  about  to  push 
their  business,  nor  burden  themselves  with  trusteeships  and 
business  not  their  own.  Gain  by  lending  money  at  interest 
was  reckoned  usury,  and  was  specially  forbidden  to  the 
clergy  (Cone.  Illib.  Can.  19,  20 ;  Arelat  (a.d.  314),  Can.  12  ; 
Nic.  Can.  17;  Chalc.  Can.  3). 

The  clergy  had  some  encouragement  to  engage  in 
business,  from  the  fact  that  they  were  set  free  from  duties 
charged  on  certain  industries.  But  this  immunity  was  after- 
wards very  much  restricted. 

Early  regulations  had  warned  clerical  persons  against 
undertaking  any  civil  functions ;  but  apparent  violations  of 
this  rule  occur  pretty  frequently,  often,  perhaps,  in  cases 
where  plausible  special  reasons  could  be  pleaded. 

More  special  restrictions  on  clerical  life  were  implied 
in  the  efforts  of  Eusebius  of  Vercelli,  and  of  Augustine,  to 
arrange  a  quasi-conYentual  mode  of  life  for  their  clergy; 
but  these  experiments  had  no  extensive  or  permanent  effect. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  mode  of  view  and  feeling  was  rising  in 
the  Church  which  favoured  clerical  celibacy.  Asceticism 
had  long  been  regarded  as  a  proper  expression  of  pronounced 
religious  earnestness,  and  the  development  of  monasticism 
had  intensified  these  feelings :  that  the  clergy  should  exhibit 
this  token  of  sincerity  and  devotedness  was  the  inference ; 


320       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

and  one  must  suppose  that  many  of  the  clergy,  in  point  of 
fact,  had  accepted  the  principle  for  themselves.  On  the 
other  side  was  the  fact  that  from  the  very  beginning  married 
men  had  been  chosen  to  office,  and  chosen  by  preference ; 
and  that  such  unions,  existing  by  divine  authority,  could  not 
be  dissolved.  Yet  the  council  of  Elvira,  in  Spain,  A.D.  305, 
laid  it  down  that  married  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  must 
live  apart  from  their  wives.  The  council  of  Nicsea  declined 
to  adopt  this  principle;  but  the  rule  seems  to  have  been 
generally  accepted  and  enforced,  that  clergy  in  those  orders 
must  not  marry  a  second  time  on  the  death  of  the  wife,  and 
that  those  who  were  single  men  when  ordained  must  not 
marry  afterwards.  In  the  West,  moreover.  Pope  Siricius, 
before  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  is  found  demanding 
cessation  of  conjugal  intercourse  after  the  husband's  ordina- 
tion. The  Eastern  Church,  on  the  contrary,  continued  to 
abide  by  the  rule  just  stated  as  regards  priests ;  in  some 
cases  working  it  with  a  disposition  to  require  all  candidates 
for  priesthood  to  be  married  before  ordination.  As  re- 
gards bishops,  however,  the  feeling  in  favour  of  celibacy 
gained  ground,  and  finally  prevailed.  Various  eminent 
bishops  of  the  fourth  century  appear  to  have  been  married 
men.^  When  Synesius  was  suddenly  called  upon  to  accept 
the  bishopric  of  Ptolemais  (about  A.D.  400)  he  made  it  a 
condition  that  the  acceptance  should  make  no  change  in  his 
conjugal  relations.  He  thought,  therefore,  that  the  other 
course  might  be  expected ;  but  was  assured  that  the  main- 
tenance of  his  condition  as  a  married  man  was  within  his 
rights.^ 

The  luminaries  of  the  time — from  Athanasius  down  to 
Leo — show  what  Christian  ministers  of  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  might  be, — what  power,  zeal,  and  fidelity, 
mixed,   no   doubt,   with    other    qualities,  they   could    bring 

1  The  father  of  Greg.  Naz.,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  and  Hilary  of  Poic tiers  are 
usually  cited. 

*  In  judging  of  the  effect  of  regulations  like  these,  it  must  be  kept  in  view 
that  a  very  large  proportion  of  those  called  to  be  presbyters  or  bishops  were 
persons  more  or  less  advanced  in  life,  selected  from  the  membership  of  the 
congregation. 


313-461]  THE   CLERGY  821 

to  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  On  the  other  hand, 
indications  are  not  wanting  that  pronounced  selfishness 
and  secularity  were  also  very  visible,  that  men  sought 
the  ministry  and  pursued  it  under  the  most  earthly 
motives,  and  did  not  care  to  disguise  those  motives.  One 
acquires  the  impression  that  gross  immorality  could,  in  par- 
ticular cases,  exist  and  be  winked  at,  without  awakening 
great  concern ;  but  the  proportion  of  such  cases  cannot 
be  fixed.  Charges  of  gross  sin  were  far  from  uncommon ; 
they  constituted  a  weapon  which  theological  opponents  used 
pretty  freely.  But  a  certain  discrimination  appears  in  the 
use  of  them.  Such  charges  were  employed  to  destroy 
Eustathius  of  Antioch.  But  nothing  of  the  kind  was 
seriously  alleged  in  the  case  of  Athanasius.  The  new  charges 
brought  against  the  young  bishop  of  Alexandria  were  such 
as  might  seem  plausible  against  a  man  of  high,  resolved, 
imperious  character.  A  similar  remark  applies  (with  some 
modification)  to  the  charges  advanced  by  the  enemies  of 
Chrysostom. 

One  of  the  influences  affecting  the  personal  character 
of  the  clergy  was  the  conventional  deference  accorded  to 
them.  This  was  most  remarkable,  naturally,  in  the  case 
of  bishops,  but  by  no  means  applied  to  them  exclusively.^ 

^  There  were  substantial  powers,  partly  noticed  already :  bishops  were 
recognised  arbiters  in  causes  brought  before  them  by  consent,  and  in  such 
cases  their  decisions  were  accepted  by  the  Courts  as  valid  ;  accusations  against 
clergymen  were,  under  considerable  limitations,  relegated,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, to  their  ecclesiastical  superiors  ;  and  bishops  had  a  vague  but  effective 
right  of  interposing  to  procure  mitigation  of  severe— especially  of  capital — 
sentences  in  the  criminal  courts.  But  the  main  point  is  that  they  were 
regarded  as  centres  of  legitimate  influence,  the  source  of  which  was  sacred ;  and 
the  motives  under  which  it  was  exerted  were  to  be  presumed  to  be  worthy. 
Influence  of  this  kind  could  be  made  much  of  by  strong  men  and  by  men  of 
venerable  character,  while  in  other  hands  it  was  less  potent. 

The  social  and  ceremonial  position  receives  its  chief  illustration  from  the 
etiquette  according  to  which  the  emperor  bowed  his  head  to  a  bishop,  to 
receive  his  blessing,  and  kissed  his  hand.  Philostorgius  has  reported  an 
amazing  instance  of  sacerdotal  impudence  in  this  department,  which  was 
probably  unique  (Gies.  §  91,  No.  24) ;  yet  see  Snip.  Sev.  Martini  Vita,  20.  The 
polite  conventions  of  the  clergy  are  exemplified  in  their  correspondence.  In 
the  third  century  Cyprian,  addressing  a  bishop  of  Rome,  was  content  to  say 
21 


322  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH      [a.d.  313-451 

The  clergy  had  become  highly  important  persons  in  the 
Christian  communities  before  Constantine ;  the  Christian 
emperors  accorded  to  them  the  full  amount  of  respect 
which  they  enjoyed  among  their  flock, — the  imperial  religion 
was  to  be  glorified  by  the  dignity  of  its  representatives, — 
and  so  a  social  convention  on  the  subject  took  place  through- 
out the  empire.  The  clergy  benefited  by  it,  and  adopted 
among  themselves  the  extravagant  formulae  of  courtesy 
characteristic  of  the  Eastern  Court. 

"Cyprianus  Cornelio  fratri";  but  in  the  fourth  Jerome  writes  to  Augustine, 
"Domino  vere  sancto  et  beatissimo  papse  Augustine";  and  in  the  fifth  the 
bishops  of  DarJania  write  to  the  Pope  Gelasius,  "Domino  sancto  Apostolico 
et  beatissimo  patri  patrum  Gelasio  papae  Urbis  Romse  humiles  Episcopi 
Dardanise  {Upistolce,  Arillana  Collection  No.  80).  This,  of  course,  was  mainly 
form ;  but  it  was  significant,  and  also  influential.  An  oflBcial  dignity  and 
sanctity  were  suggested  which  fitted  in  too  well  with  the  growing  disposition 
to  make  much  of  externala. 


CHAPTER  XX 

NiCENB  Council 

Newman,  Arians  of  Fourth  Century^  Lond.  1871.  Gwatkin,  Arian  Con- 
troversy ^  Lond.  1889  ;  Studies  of  Arianism,  Lond.  1882.  Stanley, 
Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Eastern  Churchy  Lond.  1862. 

The  shadows  of  the  long  Arian  controversy  were  darkening 
over  the  Church  in  the  very  hour  of  her  emerging  into  the 
region  of  imperial  favour  and  protection. 

The  Monarchian  theories  had  been  practically  rejected. 
The  existence  of  the  Divine  Word  or  Son,  personally  dis- 
tinct from  the  Father,  incarnate  m  Jesus  Christ,  maintained 
itself  as  the  belief  which  the  Church  was  to  assert.  It 
was  a  belief  not  free  from  difficulties.  It  had  been 
associated  with  ideas  of  a  certain  derivation  from  the 
Father,  and  a  certain  subordination  to  the  Father,  by  which, 
it  was  conceived,  the  unity  of  Godhead  was  guarded,  while 
yet  the  distinction  between  the  First  and  Second  in  the 
Godhead  was  made  tangible.  From  Justin  downwards  ex- 
pounders of  this  doctrine  had  been  led  by  various  motives, 
intellectual  or  religious,  to  ascribe  to  the  Son  characteristics 
that  seemed  to  draw  Him  somewhat  nearer  to  the  creatures, 
— a  limited  -sphere,  a  definite  origination,  a  particular 
destiny; — but  then  they  balanced  these  ideas  against  others 
which  imported  essential  connection  with  the  Father,  and 
derivation  from  within  the  Father's  being.  How  far  these 
explanations  could  be  carried,  and  how  far  they  could  be 
deemed  successful  or  safe  was  not  yet  clear.  Dionysius  of 
Alexandria,  opposing  Sabellius,  had  found  himself  on  the 
point  of  collision  with   Dionysius  of  Kome.     Goiug  back 


324       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.U 

a  little  further,  no  writer  had  exerted  more  influence  than 
Origen,  and  he  had  familiarised  many  minds  with  the 
thought  of  the  Son's  generation  as  eternal.  Yet  the  true 
construction  of  the  modes  of  speech  on  this  subject,  which 
he  brought  together,  has  been  matter  of  debate  ever  since. 
All  this  holds  true  of  the  East  especially.  In  the  West, 
Eome  was  the  place  most  accessible  to  waves  of  influence 
of  this  kind ;  but  in  the  West,  generally,  a  simpler  and 
steadier  mood  prevailed,  and  that  counter  influence  prevailed 
at  Eome  on  the  whole. 

Arius  proposed  to  clear  the  way  through  this  region 
of  thought  by  making  thorough  work,  as  he  conceived, 
with  the  great  distinction  between  uncreated  God  and 
created  beings.  With  the  Church  in  general,  he  owned 
that  He  who  became  incarnate  pre-existed  as  the  Logos, 
personally  subsisting,  presiding  over  creation,  the  source 
of  existence  to  all  beings  lower  than  Himself.  But  this 
Logos,  though  thus  exalted,  is  not,  according  to  Arius, 
within  the  sphere  of  Godhead ;  is  not,  therefore,  divine  in 
the  proper  and  primary  sense,  but  is  only  the  first  and 
greatest  of  creatures.  Terms  which  suggest  divinity  are 
indeed  applicable  to  Him,  because  He  is  the  creature  who 
stands  nearest  to  the  Father,  and  most  fully  represents  Him. 
How  far  lofty  terms  of  this  kind  may  be  carried  in  the 
case  of  the  Logos,  was  a  subject  on  which  Arius  probably 
fluctuated.  But  the  assertion  of  the  Logos  as  the  central  and 
personal  element  in  Christ,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  denial 
of  His  proper  and  essential  divinity  and  the  assertion  of  His 
essential  creaturehood,  was  Arianism.  The  Arians  maintained 
this  to  be  the  only  logical  way  of  escaping  Sabellianism. 

Arianism  commended  itself  to  men  who  wished  for  a 
scheme  of  thought  running  clear,  apparently,  from  end  to 
end,  and  not,  on  the  surface,  offering  difficulty  or  incoherence. 
This  seeming  advantage  was  secured  at  the  cost  of  sacrificing 
all  the  main  interests  for  the  sake  of  which  the  Church's 
mind  had  laboured.  The  Church  had  spoken  of  Christ  as 
divine  and  human ; — some,  supposing  themselves  driven  to 
make  a  choice,  had  asserted  one  aspect  so  as  to  wrong  the 


313-451]  NICENE    COUNCIL  325 

other.  According  to  Arius,  Christ,  who  was  not  divine,  was 
not  truly  human  either.  He  had  the  body  of  a  man,  but 
the  Logos  (a  creature  of  a  higher  order)  suppb'ed  the  place 
of  the  soul. 

The  opinions  of  Arius  have  sometimes  been  considered 
to  be  a  development  of  those  of  Origen.  Others  have  traced 
them  to  influences  which  had  their  home  at  Antioch.^ 

A  remarkable  presbyter,  named  Lucian,  had  lived  and 
worked  at  Antioch  during  the  latter  part  of  the  third 
century.  Like  his  namesake,  the  author  of  the  Dialogues^ 
he  was  said  to  have  been  born  at  Samosata.  He  was 
trained  at  Edessa,  and  early  in  his  life  he  settled  at 
Antioch.  It  is  said  that  during  the  episcopates  of  the 
three  bishops  who  followed  Paul — Domnus,  Timseus,  and 
Cyrillus  (a.d.  275—305),  Lucian  was  not  in  the  communion 
of  the  Catholic  Church  at  Antioch.  But  all  this  time  he 
was  growing  into  celebrity  as  a  teacher,  especially  as  an 
interpreter  of  Scriptures.  He  must  have  been  reconciled 
to  the  Church  eventually:  his  reputation  continued  to  be 
high,  and  many  who  became  distinguished  in  their  generation 
had  formed  their  theology  under  him.  In  312  he  was 
arrested  by  the  civil  authorities  and  removed  to  Nicomedia ; 
he  died  there  as  a  martyr,  enduring  suffering  with  fortitude. 

As  he  had  so  long  continued  separate  from  the  party 
at  Antioch  recognised  as  orthodox  and  opposed  to  Paul, 
it  was  a  natural  suggestion  that  Lucian  shared  Paul's 
errors.  Again,  as  Arius  was  among  his  pupils  (as 
were  various  churchmen  who  afterwards  sympathised  with 
Arius),  it  is  equally  natural  to  infer  that  Lucian  might 
be  the  real  author  of  Arianism.  Both  views  have  been 
maintained,  though  they  are  not  obviously  compatible;  a 
dynamical  Monarchian  (which  is  Paul's  theological  label) 
being  very  different   from   an  Arian.^     It  would   certainly 

^  Newman,  whose  theological  antipathies  were  energetic,  traces  the  course 
of  Christian  thought  at  Antioch  in  lurid  colours.  Avians,  3rd  ed.  1871, 
pp.  1-25. 

2  Harnack  has  ingeniously  tried  to  show  how  the  combination  might  be 
accomplished,  and  ascribes  to  Lucian,  on  the  strength  of  this  speculation,  an 
articulately  Arian  position.    Dogmengesch.  ii.  vii.  1. 


326       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

seem,  however,  that  Lucian's  teaching,  whatever  it  was, 
influenced  in  an  Arianising  direction  the  minds  of  many 
who  had  been  under  him.  Arius,  writing  to  Eusebius 
of  Nicomedia,  appeals  to  him  as  Sylloukianistes — Fellow 
Lucianist.^ 

Arius  is  described  to  us  as  a  Libyan  by  birth,  who 
had  visited  different  centres  of  church  life.  Latterly  he 
is  found  as  an  influential  presbyter  at  Alexandria.  A 
parochial  system  had  developed  there,  and  Arius  was  in 
permanent  charge  of  the  church  called  Baucalis.  He 
valued  himself  much  on  his  reasoning  powers.  Indeed, 
Alexander,  the  bishop,  imputed  to  him  and  his  followers  a 
spirit  of  boundless  arrogance  ;  they  spoke,  he  said,  as  if  they, 
and  they  only,  were  the  enlightened  portion  of  the  Church.^ 
However,  Arius  was  not  merely  logical,  but  enthusiastic  also ; 
and  he  lived  an  ascetic  life,  using  the  scanty  dress  at  that 
time  becoming  usual  with  ascetics.  When  the  dispute 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  Church,  Arius  was  already 
sixty  years  of  age — a  tall,  thin,  eager,  excitable  man,  with 
something  strange  in  his  appearance,  and  yet  with  great 
gentleness  of  voice  and  manner  in  his  calmer  moods.  He 
had  a  considerable  following  among  Christian  ladies  in 
Alexandria. 

It  is  said  that  the  bishop  Alexander,  expounding  in  the 
church  the  Christian  doctrine  of  God,  asserted  a  unity  in 
the  Trinity — iv  rptdSi  fiovdSa  elvac,^  Arius  controverted 
this,  and  charged  the  bishop  with  Sabellianism.  In  the 
earliest  letters  bearing  on  the  controversy,*  Arius  objects  to 
the  co-eternity  of  the  Logos,  and  asserts  in  more  than  one 
form  the  precedency  of  the  Father.  Therefore,  "  there  was 
when  the  Son  was  not  " ;  ^  and  he  already  argues  that  the  Son 
was  called  into  existence  "  out  of  nothing."  «    He  was  wiUing 

1  Theodor.  Fed.  Hist.  i.  4. 

2  Theodor.  Eccl.  Hist.  i.  3. 

*  Socrat.  ffist.  Fed.  i.  5. 

*  One  of  Alexander  of  Alexandria  to  his  namesake  of  Constantinople  ;  one 
of  Arius  to  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  ;  and  one  of  the  Arians  to  Alexander  of 
Alexandria.     Theod.  JEcd.  Hist.  i.  3,  4 ;  Athan.  de  Sy7wdis,  16. 

•^  '^v  Trore  Sre  oi/K  ^v,  *  i^  ovk  6vtuv, 


313-451]  NICENE   COUNCIL  327 

to  emphasise  the  unique  position  of  the  Son.  Tliough  He  is 
neither  the  unbegotten,  nor  part  of  the  unbegotten,  yet  "  by 
the  divine  counsel  and  will  He  took  subsistence  before  the 
ages";^  and  he  is  willing  to  confess  Him  to  be  "  fully  God, 
only  begotten  and  immutable."  ^  Afterwards  he  developed 
more  resolutely,  both  the  distinction  from  the  true  God  and 
the  participation  in  creature  qualities, — positions  which  were 
certainly  implied  in  his  radical  assertion  that  the  Son  is  one 
of  the  creatures,  though  the  first  and  most  glorious.  Thus 
his  later  teaching  asserted  that  the  Son  is  by  nature  capable 
of  going  wrong  as  well  as  right ;  and  he  argued  that  the 
Father  must  be  to  the  Son  also,  as  well  as  to  others,  in- 
comprehensible and  "  invisible,"  known  by  the  Son  only,  as 
it  were,  along  the  same  lines  on  which  some  knowledge  of 
Him  opens  to  others.^  These  and  similar  developments 
appeared  in  the  Thalia,  a  versification  of  his  principles 
with  a  view  to  popular  impression.* 

*  vph  XP^VUJV  KOl  aldivuv. 

*  irXrjpTjs  9e6s,  fiovoyevi^s,  Arpe-TTTOi  Kal  dvaWolcoroi. 

*  Arms  originally  spoke  of  the  Logos  as  drpevTos ;  but  that  perhaps  concealed 
an  ambiguity,  for  the  idea  of  the  Logos,  both  in  the  superhuman  sphere  and  in 
the  human,  by  trial  and  fidelity  turning  a  position  that  was  precarious  into 
one  that  was  assured,  seems  to  have  been  an  original  element  in  his  thought. 
Take  the  scheme  of  Paul  of  Antioch,  and  you  have  Christ  as  mere  man,  but, 
under  an  impersonal  Logos  influence,  making  good  His  standing  by  virtue.  He 
might  have  fallen,  but  He  stood.  Make  the  Logos  personal,  but  created, 
substitute  this  Logos  for  the  Soul  of  Christ,  and  suppose  Him  to  be  peccable, 
but  at  all  stages,  before  and  after  His  human  birth,  to  overcome  all  influence 
and  surmount  all  risks  that  might  shake  a  creature,  and  you  have  Arianism. 
In  both  schemes  God  foresees  the  moral  victory,  and  so  appoints  the  oflBce 
of  Saviour  to  the  victor.  Lucian  of  Antioch  may  have  suggested  this  modifica- 
tion of  Paul's  view.  If  this  was  the  original  scheme  of  Arius,  his  earlier 
ascription  to  the  Logos  of  the  attribute  drpeirTos  must  have  referred  only  to 
the  divine  foreknowledge. 

*  Athanasiua  has  preserved  for  us  some  of  these  strange  verses  {de  Syn. 
U),e.g.— 

**  God  as  He  is  in  Himself,  exists  by  none  comprehended, 
He  alone  has  no  equal,  no  like,  no  sharer  of  glory; 
Unbegotten  we  call  Him,  comparing  Him  with  the  begotten, 
And  praise  Him  as  unbeginniiig  in  contrast  with  him  who  began. 
Thus  He,  the  begin n in gl ess,  gave  to  the  Son  beginning  of  being; 
He  brought  Him  forth  as  a  child,  and  Him  to  be  Son  He  adopted. 
In  His  own  substance  the  Son  has  nought  that  to  Godhead  pertaineth, 
Nor  consubstantial  is  He,  nor  equal  in  ought  to  the  Father,"  etc.  etc. 


328       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

Still,  while  the  Second  Person,  in  the  judgment  of  Arins, 
is  a  creature,  called  into  existence  out  of  nothing  by  the  will 
of  the  Father,  He  has  divine  perfections  so  communicated  to 
Him  that  no  creature  can  surpass  Him ;  ^  all  other  creatures 
are  called  into  existence  by  His  ministry,  and  He  stands 
completely  between  the  Universe  and  the  Father.  There 
are  therefore  two  Gods,  the  unbegotten  (who  corresponds  to 
the  abstract  and  unknowable  God  of  the  philosophers)  and  the 
only-begotten  God — inferior,  even  infinitely,  to  the  first,  yet 
the  object  also  of  faith  and  worship. 

Sabellius  had  explained  away  the  Three  as  transient 
phases  of  One.  In  the  course  of  efforts  made,  against 
Sabellius,  to  emphasise  the  reality  and  the  distinction  of 
those  blessed  personalities,  a  tendency  had  appeared  to  carry 
subordination  of  the  Second  to  the  First  so  far  as  to  turn 
distinction  into  separation.  Arius  gave  decisive  expression 
to  this  tendency;  he  did  so  with  all  the  more  animosity, 
because  men  were  beginning  to  guard  against  it ;  while,  in 
his  view,  it  ought  rather  to  be  more  roundly  and  logically 
carried  out.  He  seems  to  have  been  possessed,  too,  by  a 
real  enthusiasm  for  the  Divine  Unity,  which  seemed  to  him 
to  be  subverted  by  the  Athanasian  doctrine. 

A  local  council,^  numerously  attended,  met  at  Alex- 
andria and  deposed  Arius,  with  Theonas  and  Secundus, 
bishops  who  favoured  him,  and  several  deacons.  Arius 
sought  support  among  his  friends,  who  occupied  important 
positions  in  various  churches. 

Indeed  it  soon  appeared  that  the  breach  could  not  con- 
tinue merely  local.  Churchmen  were  taking  sides  upon  it 
in  different  places.  When  the  debate  began  Egypt  was 
under  the  government  of  the  Emperor  Licinius.  Con- 
stantine  won  his  victory  in  323  ;  and  Egypt,  with  the  East, 
passed    under   his   sway.     All   the   more   that   Constantine 

*  "One  that  is  even  as  the  Son  is,  God  can  beget  at  His  pleasure.  But  one 
that  excels  Him,  or  better,  or  greater,  not  even  He  can."  Thalia  ;  Athan.  de 
Syn.  15.  Beget  is  for  Arius  equivalent  to  create.  It  mainly  suggests  to  him 
beginning  of  being. 

2  Date  uncertain ;  A.D.  320  or  321  has  been  assigned  ;  see  Hefele,  Concilien- 
geschichte,  i.  p.  235. 


3l3-45ll  NICENE   COUNCIL  329 

had  committed  himself  to  Christianity,  a  violent  conflict 
about  the  Christian  faith  was  unwelcome  to  him.  Already 
(a.d.  314)  he  had  experienced,  in  connection  with  Donatus, 
the  obstinacy  of  ecclesiastical  parties ;  and  he  was  anxious 
to  suppress  this  new  strife.  The  debate  seemed  to  him  a 
needless  one  which  might  be  dropped,  and  he  interposed  his 
good  offices  through  Hosius,  bishop  of  Corduba,  to  reconcile 
the  parties.  This  proved  to  be  impracticable ;  and  we  may 
reckon  it  likely  that  the  report  of  Hosius  would  dispose  the 
emperor  to  take  the  anti-Arian  side.  The  bent  of  the 
Christian  West  had  long  been  to  affirm  plainly  both  the 
Godhead  and  the  manhood  of  Christ,  and  to  abstain  from 
minute  speculation.  Hosius  no  doubt  shared  this  tendency ; 
and  Constantino,  so  long  resident  in  the  West,  might  be 
familiar  to  some  extent  with  the  manner  of  thought  and 
speech  which  this  disposition  suggested.  If  so,  the  elaborate 
effort  of  Arius  to  break  down  the  divinity  of  Christ,  while  he 
continued  to  call  Him  a  God,  could  hardly  fail  to  repel  Hosius, 
and  might  well  seem  to  Constantine  a  provoking  and  need- 
less sophistication.  For  the  present,  however,  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  indicated  any  bias.  With  the  advice,  doubt- 
less, of  ecclesiastical  persons,  he  resolved  to  call  a  council, 
oecumenical  enough  to  represent  the  whole  Church.  Only 
under  a  Christian  emperor  could  such  a  convention  have 
taken  place ;  and  it  is  very  possible  that  the  imagination  of 
Constantine  was  fired  by  the  idea  of  occupying  a  position  in 
which  he  could  seem  to  elicit,  and  in  some  degree  to  control, 
oracular  decrees  in  connection  with  the  religion  which  he 
had  adopted. 

The  importance  of  the  step  thus  taken  ought  to  be  well 
considered  by  the  student  of  Church  history.  Local  councils 
had  been  in  use  for  a  considerable  time,  and  had  exerted 
authority.  In  dogmatic  questions  such  councils  were  under- 
stood to  formulate  the  actual  tradition  of  the  Church,  their 
authority  in  that  respect  depending  mainly  on  the  feeling 
that  their  agreement  afforded  a  reasonable  guarantee  for  a 
correct  account  of  that  tradition,  and  carried  with  it  a  share 
of  that  general  presumption  as  to  divine  guidance  and  care 


330       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

which  it  was  pious  to  associate  with  ecclesiastical  actings. 
But  the  first  council  that  could  claim  to  be  oecumenical 
must  have  been  contemplated  as  something  new  and  great. 
It  would  have  the  character  of  the  collective  Church  speak- 
ing by  its  authentic  voice.  And  whatever  of  the  sacred  and 
the  supernatural,  whatever  presumption  of  divine  guidance 
and  care  was  associated  with  the  Church  as  a  whole,  might 
easily  be  imputed  to  such  an  assembly.  Hence  its  decisions 
might  have  something  more  in  them  than  record  of  tradition ; 
they  might  have  a  more  oracular  character.  The  signifi- 
cance of  it  might  not  be  realised  in  anticipation.  Yet  it 
must  have  been  felt  to  be  excitingly  new.  It  came  to  pass 
afterwards  that  a  council  was  a  recognised  ecclesiastical  ex- 
pedient, became  so  far  a  part  of  the  machinery  of  church 
life,  and  presented  plainly  enough  to  observers  the  tokens 
of  "  human  nature  "  in  its  procedure.  As  yet  this  was  some- 
thing new, — part  of  the  new  world  into  which  the  Church 
had  come. 

Nicaea  lies  east  of  Constantinople,  across  the  Bosphorus,  at 
a  distance  of  some  forty-four  miles.  The  council  assembled 
there  in  May  or  June  325.  Practically  it  represented  Eastern 
Christendom, — there  were  not  ten  bishops  from  the  West : 
the  distance  and  the  growing  disuse  of  Greek  in  the  West 
were  obstacles.  Sylvester,  bishop  of  Eome,  being  old  and 
feeble,  was  represented  by  two  presbyters.  The  number  of 
bishops  present  has  been  reckoned  variously  from  2 1 8  to  3 1 8  ; 
the  latter  is  the  figure  which  is  generally  accepted.  Hosius 
of  Corduba,  Eusebius  of  Ciesarea,  Eustathius  of  Antioch, 
Alexander  of  Alexandria,  are  the  personages  most  prominent, 
at  the  outset  at  least,  and  among  them  the  presidents  of  the 
meeting  must  be  sought.  Athanasius  was  in  attendance  on 
his  bishop,  and  took  part,  perhaps,  as  his  spokesman  in  some 
of  the  discussions. 

No  continuous  and  consecutive  account  of  the  proceed- 
ings has  been  handed  down.  Arius  was  present,  and  about 
eighteen  bishops,  headed  by  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  were  in 
general  agreement  with  him.  It  would  appear  that  at  a  pretty 
early  stage,  expUcit  statements  of  the  views  of  Arius  were 


313-451]  NICENE   COUNCIL  331 

elicited,  including  passages  of  bis  Thalia,  and  these  drew 
forth  energetic  disapprobation.  A  creed  was  put  forward 
drawn  up  by  the  eighteen,  the  terms  of  which  have  not  been 
preserved ;  but  it  was  rejected,  and  torn  in  pieces.  Perhaps 
it  was  at  this  point  that  Eusebius  of  Csesarea  rehearsed  the 
creed  of  his  church,  which  he  conceived  might  be  accepted 
as  a  sound  and  adequate  statement  of  the  Church's  doc- 
trine.^ 

This  creed  is  given  by  Eusebius  himself  in  his  account  of 
the  proceedings  at  Nicsea,  contained  in  a  letter  to  his  flock 
(Theodoret,  Eccl  Hist.  i.  1 2).  The  last  sentence,  and  perhaps 
the  one  before,  do  not  read  like  clauses  in  a  creed,  and  may 
embody  rather  assurances  with  which  Eusebius  accompanied 
it,  when  he  submitted  it  to  the  council. 

The  Arians  by  this  time,  we  are  told,  had  become  aware 
of  the  position  in  which  they  stood ;  they  saw  that  they 
must,  if  possible,  shelter  themselves  under  the  terms  of  some 
decision  which,  without  sanctioning  their  views,  might  be 
interpreted  as  not  excluding  them.  They  showed  them- 
selves ready  to  accept  the  Caesarean  formula,  but  this 
suggested  to  their  opponents  that  they  meant  to  interpret 
it  in  an  Arian  sense.  On  this  the  Alexandrian  party  (who 
had  the  powerful  support  of  Eustathius  of  Antioch,  Macarius 

^  "I  believe  in  one  God  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  all  things  both 
visible  and  invisible  :  and  in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Word  of  God,  God  of 
God,  Light  of  Light,  Life  of  Life,  the  only-begotten  Son,  the  firstborn  of 
every  creature,  begotten  of  the  Father  before  all  worlds,  by  whom  all  things 
were  made  ;  who  for  our  salvation  was  incarnate,  and  lived  among  men,  and 
suffered,  and  rose  again  on  the  third  day,  and  ascended  to  the  Father,  and 
shall  come  in  glory  to  judge  the  quick  and  dead.  And  we  believe  in  one 
Holy  Ghost.  We  believe  that  each  of  these  Three  is  and  subsists,  the  Father 
truly  as  Father,  the  Son  truly  as  Son,  the  Holy  Ghost  truly  as  Holy  Ghost : 
as  also  our  Lord,  sending  forth  His  own  disciples  to  preach,  said,  *Go,  and 
teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the 
Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.'  Concerning  which  things  we  affirm  that  this 
is  so,  that  we  so  think,  and  that  it  has  long  so  been  held,  and  that  we  remain 
steadfast  to  death  for  this  faith,  anathematising  every  godless  heresy.  That 
we  have  taught  these  things  from  our  heart  and  soul  from  the  time  we 
have  known  ourselves,  and  that  we  now  think  and  say  this  in  truth,  we  testify 
in  the  name  of  Almighty  God,  and  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  being  able  to 
prove  even  by  demonstration  and  to  persuade  you  that  in  past  times  also  thus 
we  believed  and  preached." 


33^  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLtC   CHURCH  [a.b. 

of  Jerusalem,  and  also  Marcellus  of  Ancyra),  without  object- 
ing to  anything  in  the  Csesarean  formula,  set  themselves  to 
strengthen  and  make  it  more  effective  in  excluding  Arianism, 
by  the  insertion  of  appropriate  words  and  clauses.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  know  in  detail  the  process  of  discussion  by 
which  this  took  place.  But  only  scattered  glimpses  are 
afforded  us.  The  creed  ultimately  took  shape  as  follows  :  ^ — 
"  We  believe  in  one  God  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of 
all  things  visible  and  invisible:  and  in  one  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  begotten  of  the  Father,  only  be- 
gotten, that  is,  of  the  substance  of  the  Father,  God  of 
God,  Light  of  Light,  Very  God  of  Very  God,  begotten,  not 
made,  consubstantial  with  the  Father,  by  whom  all  things 
were  made  that  are  in  heaven  or  in  earth ;  who  for  us  men, 
and  for  our  salvation  descended  and  took  flesh,  and  became 
man;  He  suffered  and  rose  again  the  third  day,  ascended 
into  heaven,  and  cometh  to  judge  the  quick  and  dead :  and 
in  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  those  that  say  there  was  when 
He  was  not,  and  before  He  was  begotten  He  was  not,  and 
that  He  was  made  out  of  nothing  or  of  some  other  substance 
or  essence,  or  that  say  the  Son  of  God  was  liable  to  perver- 
sion or  mutation,  them  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church 
anathematises." 

The  word  consubstantial — ofioovato^ — henceforth  became 
the  banner  of  the  orthodox,  although  "  of  the  substance " 
— eV  T?}?  ovaia<; — was  perhaps  the  phrase  which  Athanasius 
valued  most.  The  Arian  teaching  was  effectually  shut  out 
by  these  phrases,  and  by  the  condemnatory  clauses  at  the 
close. 

^  IlKXTeiiofJLev  els  ?va  Qebv,  Haripa  iravTOKpdropa,  irdproju  bparZv  re  kol  aoparu^v 
iroiriT'fjv'  Kal  els  ?va  K6pLov  'Irjaovp  Xpiardv,  rbv  Tibp  rod  Qeou,  yevvrjO^vra  e/f  rod 
Uarpbs  fiovoyevT],  tovt  iarip  iK  ttjs  ovaias  rod  Jlarpos,  Qebv  iK  Qeov,  $uJs  ^k  ^utos, 
Qebv  dXrjdivbv  iK  Qeov  oKrjdLvov,  yevvrjO^pra,  ov  iroLT]9^PTa,  o/moo^aiop  t<^  Uarpi'  di 
od  rh  TrdpTa  iyipero,  rd  re  iv  t(^  ovpap(^  Kal  rd  iv  ry  yrj'  rbp  8l  •^yccas  roiis  dv- 
dpdjTTOvs,  Kal  did  T7)v  rjjxeT^pap  awTrjpiap  KareXddvTa,  Kal  aapKcodipTa,  Kal  evapdpu- 
ir-^aapra,  Traddpra  Kal  dpaardvTa  rrj  Tpirr]  Vfiepa,  dpeXdopra  els  rods  ovpavo{<s, 
ipX^fiepov  KpTpai  ^Coptos  Kal  veKpo6s'  Kal  els  rb  "Ay lop  UpeO/xa.  rods  8k  Xiyopras, 
fiv  TTore  Sre  ovk  ^p,  Kal  irplp  yepprjdyjpai  oiK  Tjp,  /cat  6tl  i^  ovk  Svtwp  iyiveTo,  ■^  i^ 
ir^pas  iir oardcr eojs  ij  oialas  (f>d<rK0PTas  ehai,  rj  KTiarbp  i)  rpeirrbp  ■^  dWoiwTbv  rbv 
Tibv  Tov  Qeov,  to6tovs  dvadefiarl^ei  i]  dyia  KaOoXiK^  Kal  diroaToXiK^  iKKXijaloL, 


313-451]  NICENE   COUNCIL  333 

The  question  was  whether  the  formula  thus  built  up 
could  secure  acceptance  in  a  measure  sufficient  to  con- 
stitute it  an  utterance  of  the  Church.  The  emperor's 
influence  was  freely  employed  to  promote  this  object,  and 
in  the  end  almost  everyone  signified  acquiescence.  A 
letter  of  Eusebius  of  C^sarea^  to  his  church  exists,  in 
which  he  explains  his  signature  of  the  creed, — evidently 
conscious  that  he  might  be  charged  with  having  acted 
against  his  convictions.  Most  of  the  eighteen  bishops  who 
had  supported  Arius  signed;  but  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia 
with  Theognis  of  Nicaea,  demurring  to  the  condemnatory 
clauses, .  were  deprived  of  their  sees  and  banished.  It  is 
alleged,  however,  that  before  the  end  of  the  council  or  soon 
after  it,  they  were  induced  to  submit  and  were  restored.^ 
Arius  also  was  banished,  and  some  of  his  more  obscure 
followers  also  shared  this  fate. 

The  Nicene  Council  might  not  at  once  disclose  all  its 
significance  to  its  contemporaries  and  to  those  who  took 
part  in  it.  That  is  common  in  the  case  of  great  events ; 
the  actors  are  occupied  with  the  details  and  the  temporary 
forces.  But  the  first  general  council  crystallised  and  em- 
bodied in  a  new  form  the  idea  of  the  Church :  it  ex- 
hibited the  form  in  which,  as  regards  faith  and  duty,  the 
Church  could  appear,  and  speak,  and  act  in  time  and  space. 
A  presence  heretofore  believed,  shall  we  say  worshipped, 
found  means  of  gathering  itself  into  a  tangible  shape,  in  a 
Bithynian  town,  during  some  weeks  of  the  autumn  of  325. 

Heretofore  the  Church  spoke  as  from  the  past.  Men  and 
companies  of  men  professed  to  receive  and  reproduce  her 
genuine  tradition,  cherished  by  the  constant  faith  of  her 
members.  To  the  great  subject  of  the  nature  of  our  Lord 
men  had  striven  to  do  justice  by  selecting  and  combining 
Biblical  phrases.  In  doing  this  the  inevitable  expository 
function,  in  the  exercise  of  which  we  declare  our  under- 
standing   of    that    which    has    come   to   us,  was   not    idle. 

»  Theod.  Ecd.  Hist.  i.  11. 

*  It  is  more  likely  that  their  return  to  position  and  influence  fell  somewhat 
later. 


334       THE  AKCIeNT  catholic  church       [a.d. 

But  men  had  striven  always  to  keep  the  attitude  of 
reproducing  what  was  undeniably  ancient.  The  Nicene 
Council  felt  itself  competent  to  go  further,  and  to  give 
a  more  independent  expression  to  its  utterance  of  the 
distinctive  faith.  The  decisive  words  ovala^  o/jboovato^ 
(vTToa-TaaL^),  had  been  employed,  or  had  been  allowed 
to  pass,  by  some  eminent  teachers.^  But  they  had  not  been 
regarded  with  uniform  satisfaction,  and  they  were  under- 
stood to  be  welcomed  by  Sabellius  and  his  followers.  No 
very  authoritative  tradition  applied  to  them.  But  the 
council  chose  them  to  define  what  it  judged  to  be  the 
true  sense  of  the  received  faith  concerning  Christ.     . 

This  liberty,  which  is  indispensable  to  the  theologian, 
is  also  surely  not  forbidden  to  councils.  And  councils  may 
be — it  is  to  be  hoped  are — ^inwardly  persuaded  that  their 
exposition  is  absolutely  just.  But  much  depends  on  whether, 
once  made,  it  is  held  to  be  final,  irreformable,  infallible. 

Consciously  or  unconsciously  the  Nicene  decision  really 
meant  that  ways  of  thinking  and  speaking  which  hitherto  had 
been  open  must  cease.  Esteemed  teachers  had  admitted 
speculation  which  either  leant  in  the  direction  of  merging 
the  Son  in  the  Father — in  that  case  with  risk  of  construing 
the  distinct  personality  of  Christ  as  human  merely — or,  for 
the  sake  of  escaping  that  danger,  they  emphasised  the  distinct 
personality  before  the  human  birth,  and  tried  to  make  that 
conceivable  by  ascribing  to  this  personality  a  later  origin  and 
a  restricted  class  of  attributes,  as  of  one  hovering  between 
God  and  the  creatures.  But  in  the  presence  of  Arianism, 
with  its  created  God  and  its  creature  God,  this  had  to  end. 
The  contrast  between  the  Creator  and  the  creature  must  be 
emphasised, — and  the  personal  distinction  between  the  Son 
and  the  Father  must  be  associated  with  the  resolute  assertion 
of  Christ's  true  and  essential  Godhead. 

Theologically,  the  writer  believes  that  the  turn  of  think- 
ing on  this  high  subject  sanctioned  at  Niciea,  was  the  just 
outcome  of  the  whole  discussion.     Whether  the  terms  em- 

^  Origen  sometimes,  Hippolytus  {Eef.  x.  33),  Dion.  Alex,  in  Atlian.  de 
Sententia,  xviii. 


313-451]  NICENE   COUNCIL  335 

ployed  to  express  it  are  the  best  or  the  only  ones,  has  been 
questioned.  Those  who  do  so,  object  to  metaphysical  and 
non-Biblical  terms ;  and  they  point  to  the  history  of  varying 
meanings  attachable  to  ova  la,  ofioovato^;,  vTroaraatf;.  But  it 
is  not  needful  to  track  all  these  windings  in  order  to  under- 
stand the  Nicene  Creed.  The  subject  in  hand  determines 
the  range  of  meaning.  Ova  la  is  etymologically  =  Being  or 
Essence;  and  it  suggests  that  whatever  that  manner  of 
existence  is  which  differences  God  from  all  creatures,  that  is 
to  be  ascribed  to  the  Son  as  well  as  to  the  Father. 

It  can  be  maintained,  indeed,  that  this  term  ovala  and 
others  do  not  apply  to  God  with  certainty  or  clearness. 
These  terms  are  derived  from  our  thoughts  of  existences 
nearer  to  ourselves.  Amid  the  changing  appearances  and 
relations  to  which  they  are  subject  we  ascribe  to  each 
object  something  abiding,  its  ovala,  which  makes  it  what  it 
is,  and  is  the  source  and  secret  of  its  properties.  It  may  be 
said  we  do  not  know  that  ovala  in  any  of  the  shades  of 
sense  of  which  it  is  capable  is  at  all  applicable  to  God. 
But  the  answer  seems  to  be  that  if  we  think  of  God  at  all 
we  do,  in  our  thoughts,  ascribe  to  Him  Being,  and  a  manner 
of  Being,  which  is  peculiarly  His.  We  cannot  most  likely 
clear  these  words  of  implications  which  originate  in  our 
dealing  with  objects  presented  to  our  senses.  But  terms 
which  have  been  found  indispensable  must  be  presumed  to 
have  a  right.  It  is  a  saying  which  carries  its  sense  clearly, 
that  if  and  when  we  ascribe  to  God  ovala^  as  we  shall 
inevitably  do,  we  are  to  ascribe  the  same  also  to  the  Son 
of  God  because  He  is  divine. 

This  conviction  had  substantially  prevailed  in  the  Church 
before,  but  not  so  consistently  and  clearly,  nor  expressed  so 
inevitably,  as  now  it  was  to  be. 

But  while  this  may  be  maintained  theologically,  ecclesi- 
astically it  is  a  question  whether  the  Church  was  prepared 
for  the  Nicene  decision.  Was  the  council  itself  so  united 
on  it  as  it  seemed  to  be  ?  Face  to  face  with  Arianism, 
from  which  they  recoiled,  impelled  by  the  clearness  and 
consistency  of    those    who    led    on    the    Alexandrian    side, 


336       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

influenced  eventually  by  the  emperor's  concurrence  with 
the  proposers  of  the  creed,  those  members  who  might  have 
preferred  something  short  of  it  found  no  standing  ground. 
They  were  embarrassed  perhaps  by  the  circumstance  that 
the  course  of  procedure  which  their  views  suggested  had 
been  early  put  forward  by  the  bishop  of  Caesarea,  and  had 
been  discredited  as  fitted  to  shelter  the  Arians.  But  it  is 
very  possible  that  many  of  them,  in  adopting  the  phrases 
of  the  creed,  went  further  than  their  own  convictions  war- 
ranted, and  would  have  preferred  to  rest  in  expressions 
of  earlier  creeds  less  peremptory  and  precise.  When  they 
departed  to  their  churches,  and  found  themselves  again  in 
contact  with  brethren  who  had  not  experienced  the  influences 
of  the  council,  a  change  came  for  many  in  the  direction  of 
relaxation  or  recoil.  In  no  other  way  can  we  explain  the 
course  of  subsequent  events. 

Of  those  who,  refusing  to  accede  to  Arianism,  yet  proved 
to  be  dissatisfied  with  the  Nicene  Creed,  there  might  be 
various  shades;  but  on  the  whole  they  may  be  referred 
to  two  classes.  One  was  composed  of  men  who  simply 
wished  to  abide  by  the  language  already  familiar  to  them, 
and  felt  uneasy  as  to  the  amount  of  change  and  also  of 
exclusion  which  the  Nicene  phrases  might  turn  out  to  carry 
with  them.  The  other  class  were  Semi-Arians  proper.  They 
had  adopted  subtle  theories  about  the  Logos,  which  really 
were  attempts  to  find  a  middle  category  between  the  creat- 
ing nature  and  the  created.  They  did  not  sympathise  with 
the  resolute  clearness  of  Arius  in  ranking  the  Logos  among 
the  creatures,  called  into  existence  "  out  of  nothing " ;  but 
neither  did  they  sympathise  with  the  corresponding  clearness 
of  the  Nicene  Creed  on  the  other  side.  They  believed  in  a 
middle  ground.  These  two  classes  shaded  into  one  anothec, 
and  it  was  the  interest  of  both  to  find  common  phrases  and 
to  act  together. 

Such  persons  could  unite  in  objecting  to  the  phrase  of 
the  creed,  as  leaning  to  Sabellianism.  For  some  of  them 
this  might  be  merely  a  good  popular  cry ;  but  in  the  case 
of  others  it  was  a  genuine  apprehension.     The  assertion 


313-451]  NICENE   COUNCIL  337 

of  the  ofinvaia,  as  they  felt,  so  identified  the  Father  with 
the  Son  that  the  distinction  between  them  could  not  after- 
wards be  maintained.  The  word  itselt*  also  had  had  a 
questionable  history.  In  using  it  the  council  were  con- 
secrating a  suspected  phrase. 

Some  justification  for  such  suspicions  was  furnished  by 
the  case  of  Marcellus  of  Ancyra.  He  had  been  prominent 
at  the  council  as  an  opponent  of  Arius,  and  afterwards 
continued  to  support  the  Nicene  Creed.  But  he  held  a 
peculiar  doctrine,  which  was  eventually  disclosed  in  a  book 
written  by  Marcellus,  against  Asterius  an  advocate  of 
Arianism.  Marcellus,  as  we  shall  see,  did  not  own  a  real 
distinction  between  the  Father  and  the  Logos.  He  was 
felt  to  deny  both  the  pre-existence  of  Christ  and  His 
continued  existence  after  the  consummation  of  the  Church. 
He  had  no  motive  therefore,  and  hardly  a  feasible  ground, 
for  any  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  energy  and  success  with  which  the  Athanasian 
view  was  carried  through  at  the  council  against  every 
hostile  or  temporising  tendency,  seems  to  be  reflected  in 
the  attitude  of  Constantine.  There  is  reason  to  suppose 
that  before  the  council  began  he  had  been  made  acquainted 
with  the  creed  of  Csesarea  (proposed  by  Eusebius),  and  had 
thought  it  might  suffice.  If  this  be  so,  his  change  of 
attitude,  and  his  resolute  advocacy,  at  last,  of  the  creed 
eventually  adopted,  indicates  that  the  way  in  which  the 
Homoousian  doctrine  was  pressed  and  carried  had  impressed 
him  deeply,  and  led  him  to  think  it  his  true  policy  to  rally 
the  Church  on  that  line,  and  break  down  opposition  or 
hesitation.  This  memorable  decision  of  Church  and  State 
— uttered  by  a  new  organ,  in  the  very  dawn  of  the  new 
day,  must  have  fallen  with  weight  on  the  minds  of  men. 
Yet  the  elements  of  reaction  existed,  as  we  have  seen,  in 
many  minds,  and  the  Arians,  as  well  as  the  more  advanced 
and  dogmatic  Semi-Arians,  resolved  to  take  advantage  of  this 
to  shake  the  authority  of  the  Nicene  formula.  Constantine 
was  by  and  by  won  to  their  views. 

What  proved  to  be  at  first  the  policy  of  the  party 

22 


338  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH      [a.d.  313-451 

was  not  to  repudiate  Nicene  doctrine,  but  to  administer  the 
Church  with  liberal  toleration  for  Arianising  views ;  to 
smother  the  Nicene  Creed  in  numerous  formulas  less  precise  ; 
and  to  contrive  pretexts  for  discrediting  and  destroying  lead- 
ing advocates  of  the  Nicene  decision. 


CHAPTER    XXI 

Arian  Controversy — Post-Nicenb 

Gwatkin,  Studies  of  Arianism,  Lond.  1882.   "  Arianism,"  in  Real-Encyd. 

The  chief  sections  into  which  the  Church  divided  during 
subsequent  discussions  may  be  distinguished  thus : — 

1.  Those  who  defended  Nicene  theology  in  Nicene  terms, 
led,  of  course,  by  Athanasius.  Their  distinctive  words  were 
6/jioovaLO<;,  iic  t?)?  ovala^. 

2.  The  Arians.  For  them  the  Son  was  a  unique  and 
wonderful  creature,  called  into  existence  before  the  ages 
to  be  the  Father's  representative  to  all  other  creatures. 
For  many  years  the  most  of  them  were  willing  to  be 
confounded  with  the  next  party  (No.  3);  for  their  great 
object  was  to  defeat  Nicene  theology.  Eventually  o/jlolo^ 
became  their  watchword;  but  a  more  resolved  party  took 
up  separate  ground  (see  4). 

3.  Between  1  and  2  the  ground  was  occupied  by  a 
large  party,  very  strong  in  the  East,  whom  the  orthodox 
designated  Semi- Arians ;  but  it  included  (a)  a  section  that 
repudiated  all  sympathy  with  Arianism,  and  proposed  to 
maintain  the  divinity  of  the  Son  in  language  more  safe 
and  more  approved  than  that  of  Nicsea ;  for  they  thought 
the  latter  to  be  capable  of  a  Sabellian  sense,  and  in  any 
case  to  be  too  new.  These  were  led,  for  some  years,  by 
Basil  of  Ancyra,  and  were  accustomed  to  appeal  to  certain 
creeds  of  Antioch.  Eventually  their  distinctive  word  came 
to  be  o/xoLovacof;.  (b)  A  body  of  men  who  either  verged 
towards  Arianism,  but  did  not  like  to  go  the  whole  length 
and  tried  to  find  a  middle  ground  between   Creator  and 


340       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

creature,  or  who  did  not  know  their  own  minds  and  were 
at  the  mercy  of  circumstances.  This  party  could  often  use 
the  phrases  of  dogmatic  Semi-Arianism ;  but  they  were  more 
attracted  by  the  convenient  vagueness  of  the  Arian  6/jLoco<f. 

4.  An  extreme  left  wing  of  Arianism  became  apparent 
in  the  later  stages.  The  natural  utterance  of  Arius  was 
to  say  that  the  Logos  was  like  the  Father.  Yet  in  respect 
of  the  contrast  between  Creator  and  creature,  He  must  be 
also  unlike;  and  Arius  had  virtually  said  this  too.  A 
section  of  his  followers  conceived  it  to  be  proper  to  lay 
the  emphasis  on  the  unlikeness,  and  they  did  so  in  coarse 
and  offensive  terms.     They  said  plainly  av6fioLo<;. 

The  debate  went  on  for  fifty -six  years. 

We  fix  four  stages,  and  give  account  of  them  in  succes- 
sion. The  first  extends  from  the  Mcene  Council  to  the  death 
of  Constantino  (325-337);  the  second,  to  the  reunion  of  the 
empire  (previously  shared  among  the  brothers)  under  Con- 
stantius  (351) ;  the  third,  to  the  death  of  Constantius  (361) ; 
and  the  fourth,  to  the  Council  of  Constantinople  (381), 
which  was  preceded  by  the  accession  of  Theodosius  (379). 

I.  Constantino  had  approved  the  Nicene  formula,  and 
promoted  the  adoption  of  it  in  the  Council.  That  was  in 
A.D.  325.  But  a  change  in  his  policy  appears  by  328. 
Various  influences  have  been  suggested  as  explaining  this, 
among  others  that  of  his  sister,  the  widow  of  Licinius,  who 
was  herself  influenced  by  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia.  Some- 
thing was  due,  perhaps,  to  mere  change  of  residence. 
Constantine  had  come  from  the  West,  where  the  divine 
and  the  human  aspects  of  Christ  were  roundly  stated,  and 
where  there  was  no  propensity  to  speculation ;  in  particular, 
no  anxiety  to  relate  the  definition  of  church  theology  to 
philosophical  theories.  It  is  likely  enough  that  Constantine 
by  degrees  became  more  aware  of  the  intellectual  world 
in  which  the  Greek  mind  worked,  and  of  the  various  lines 
of  thought  and  argument  by  which  it  was  held ;  and  he 
might  begin  to  think  it  wiser  and  more  conducive  to 
eventual  peace  to  pursue  a  policy  of  comprehension.  This, 
at   all   events,  was   the  nature  of  the  change  which   took 


313-451]  ARIAN    CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE  341 

place.  Constantine  resolved  to  administer  things  so  as  to 
comprehend  men  of  different  shades,  instead  of  exacting  full 
and  precise  acceptance  of  the  Nicene  definitions.  There 
was,  however,  no  repudiation  of  the  Nicene  Creed.  That  for 
a  man  like  Constantine  would  have  been  a  questionable  step  ; 
it  would  have  amounted  to  the  admission  of  a  mistake.  But 
there  might  be  different  ways  of  regarding  the  creed,  and  of 
administering  affairs  under  it. 

The  men  who  chiefly  influenced  Constantine  in  this 
direction,  or  who  naturally  became  his  chief  advisers  when 
once  his  face  was  set  this  way,  were  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia 
and  Eusebius  of  Cciesarea.  Both  men  must  have  agreed 
in  desiring  a  less  stringent  enforcement  of  Nicene  doctrine; 
but  the  former  was  an  Arian  or  something  very  near  it, 
while  the  bishop  of  Csesarea  belonged  to  one  of  the  shades 
of  what  would  have  been  called  Semi-Arianism  at  a  later 
period.  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  was  nearer  to  the  ear  of 
the  emperor,  and  he  was  the  more  astute  manager  of  men. 
He  had  been  banished  at  the  close  of  the  Nicene  Council, 
but  reappears  in  his  see  about  a.d.  328  or  329.  Arius 
also  was  recalled,  or  was  allowed  to  return  from  banish- 
ment. Meanwhile  Alexander  of  Alexandria  had  died,  and 
Athanasius,  in  spite  of  bitter  opposition,  was  elected  to  the 
vacant  see,  A.D.  328. 

It  must  always  be  kept  in  view  that  Arianism  proper, 
in  its  own  name  and  for  its  own  sake,  could  have  done 
little  to  disturb  the  Nicene  decision.  The  Arians  for  the 
present  maintained  their  position  by  supporting  the  great 
middle  party,  which  in  a  general  way  goes  under  the  name 
of  Semi-Arianism  in  the  pages  of  Church  history. 

The  Eusebians  began  the  attack ;  the  Nicene  leaders 
were  assailed,  but  not  on  the  ground  of  their  Nicene  faith. 
Eustathius  of  Antioch  was  deposed  about  330  on  charges, 
mainly,  of  immorality.  Several  more  were  got  rid  of  in  the 
following  year ;  and  charges  of  false  doctrine  were  directed 
against    Marcellus    of    Ancyra,^    while    against    Athanasius 

*  Marcellus    really  held  a  peculiar  doctrine,    though   his    friends    were 
unwilling  to  see  this,  and  he  himself  seems  for  a  time  to  have  poncealed  \t* 


342       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        Ta.p 

various  impossible  charges  were  brought,  not  theological, 
but  personal  and  political. 

Athanasius  was  made  to  appear  at  a  great  council 
at  Tyre  (335),  which  deposed  him;  and  the  emperor  soon 
after  banished  him  to  Treves  in  the  West,  but  did  not 
at  this  time  allow  his  see  to  be  filled  up.  In  336  Arius, 
who  had  made  a  confession  satisfactory  to  the  authorities 
now  in  power,  was  ordered  to  be  received  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Church  at  Constantinople ;  but  on  the  evening 
before  the  day  fixed  for  that  purpose  he  died  suddenly.  In 
A.D.  337  Constantine  himself  died,  having  been  baptized  on 
his  deathbed  by  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia.  All  this  time  the 
Nicene  form  of  creed  had  not  been  openly  rejected,  scarcely 
€ven  controverted.  Athanasius,  Marcellus,  Eustathius  of 
Antioch,  Macarius  of  Jerusalem,  were  prominent  at  this 
stage  on  the  Nicene  side.  Hosius  had  retired  to  his 
remote  bishopric  in  Spain.  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  led  the 
anti-Nicene  party,  which  had  not  yet  disclosed  its  internal 
differences. 

II.  In  the  next  period  (extending  to  a.d.  350)  we  start 
with  three  emperors,  of  whom  Constantius  ruled  the 
East  (including  Egypt),  Constans  had  Italy  and  Illyricum, 
and  Constantine  li.  Spain,  Gaul,  and  Britain.     Constantine's 

He  had  energetically  opposed  the  Arians  at  Nicsea,  and  lent  useful  help  in 
connection  with  the  creed.  But  in  a  book  which  he  put  forth  he  was  under- 
stood to  maintain  that  the  Logos,  which  is  the  essential  Reason  of  the  divine 
nature,  is  not,  as  such,  personally  distinct.  In  the  Incarnation,  however,  it 
assumes  a  distinct  character  and  becomes  the  Son  ;  but  this  is  not  durable  ; 
for  when,  at  last,  the  Son,  having  accomplished  all  the  ends  of  His  work,  gives 
up  the  kingdom  to  the  Father,  He  is  again  merged  indistinguishably  in  the 
Father's  essence.  This  was  Sabellian,  because  the  personal  distinction  in  the 
Godhead  was  explained  away  ;  it  was  also  denounced  as  savouring  of  the  error 
of  Paul  of  Samosata. 

Marcellus,  like  some  others,  returned  to  his  see  after  Constantine's  death, 
but  had  soon  to  leave  it  again.  He  was  in  Rome  as  a  refugee  during  the 
pontificate  of  Julius,  and  met  the  accusation  against  him  by  reciting  the 
Roman  creed.  Tliis  sufficed  for  the  time,  but  eventually  his  friends  had  to 
acknowledge  his  defection  from  sound  doctrine.  The  phrase  '*of  whose 
kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end,"  in  the  later  form  which  passes  under  the 
name  of  Nicene,  was  levelled  against  Marcellus.  2ahn,  Marcell.  v.  Ancyra^ 
1867. 


313-451]  ARIAN   CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE  343 

life  soon  ended,  and  his  inheritance  was  taken  over  by 
Constans. 

The  new  emperors  allowed  the  deposed  bishops, 
Athanasius,  Marcellus,  and  the  rest,  to  return  to  their 
sees.  Constantine  ii.  and  Constans  were  at  least  not 
unfavourable  to  Athanasius,  and  Constantius  probably- 
deferred  to  their  wishes.  But  next  year  (338)  Athan- 
asius was  again  expelled  from  his  see  and  fled  to  Eome ; 
80  did  various  other  ecclesiastics,  including  Marcellus. 
Julius,  bishop  of  Rome,  proposed  to  hold  a  council  on 
these  troubles,  and  invited  the  attendance  of  the  Eastern 
bishops ;  but  they  procrastinated  and  finally  declined. 
In  340  Julius  held  his  council  About  fifty  Western 
bishops  met  at  Eome,  acquitted  Athanasius,  as  well  as 
Marcellus,  and  reported  their  decision  to  the  Eastern 
bishops.  The  irregularity  of  a  Western  council  disregard- 
ing the  decision  of  an  Eastern  one  in  the  case  of  Eastern 
bishops,  and  their  shielding  the  errors  of  Marcellus,  were 
henceforth  added  to  the  doctrinal  causes  of  division  and 
distrust.  The  case  of  Marcellus  was  regarded  in  the  Ease 
as  an  illustration  of  the  Sabellian  teaching  of  Nicene 
men. 

In  341,  on  the  occasion  of  the  dedication  of  a  great 
church,  a  council  was  held  at  Antioch^  which  illustrates 
very  well  the  situation  in  the  East.  This  council  put  forth 
successively  four  creeds,  all  differing  in  terms  from  the 
Nicene,  and  it  confirmed  the  sentence  on  Athanasius.  It 
was  regarded  in  later  times  as  an  Arian  or  Eusebian 
assembly;  resolute  criticism  has  been  applied  to  its  utterances, 
and  the  key  to  its  proceedings  has  been  found  in  insincerity 
and  heresy  combined.  But  that  was  hardly  so.  The  council 
was  a  meeting  of  Eastern  bishops,  exhibiting  the  usual 
varieties  which  at  that  stage  might  be  expected  at  such 
gatherings.  Some  were  Eusebians ;  but  none  of  these  pro- 
fessed to  hold  the  Arianism  condemned  at  Nicaea.  Others 
no  doubt  represented,  in  different  shades  and  degrees,  the 

^  Antioch  was  not  only  the  seat  of  a  Patriarchate,  but  at  this  time  it  was 
the  oourt  residence  of  the  Emperor  Constantiiis. 


344       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

sentiment  which  distrusted  the  Nicene  way  of  asserting  our 
Lord's  divinity;  Dianius  of  Cyesarea  (in  Cappadocia),  for 
instance,  certainly  believed  in  our  Lord's  true  divinity,  but 
held  the  question  still  to  be  open  how  it  might  best  be 
expressed.  In  these  circumstances  the  aim  of  the  Eusebians 
was  to  bias  the  proceedings  in  a  manner  favourable  to  their 
own  policy,  but  they  could  only  do  so  by  adopting  a  very 
cautious  line  of  action.  There  is  nothing  heretical  in  the 
four  creeds :  three  of  them  condemn  Arianism,  and  all  are 
efforts  to  come  near  to  the  Nicene  faith,  while  abstaining 
from  Nicene  expressions,  especially  from  the  oixoovaio^.  They 
level  condemnation  also  at  Marcellus,  who  was  still  supported 
by  the  Nicene  champions ;  but  this  condemnation  was  just. 
Finally,  they  confirmed  the  deposition  of  Athanasius  on 
charges  of  oppression,  etc.,  a  step  which  must  have  given 
satisfaction  to  the  Eusebians.  But  they  did  so  as  uphold- 
ing the  sentence  of  the  synod  of  Tyre,  against  the  contrary 
judgment  of  a  Eoman  synod,  which  they  no  doubt  con- 
sidered to  be  intrusive  and  irregular. 

Meanwhile  Coustans  in  the  West  was  pressing  for  a 
general  council  of  the  whole  Church,  and  the  poKtical  cir- 
cumstances were  such  that  Constantius  did  not  think  it 
prudent  obstinately  to  resist  the  proposal.  The  place  fixed 
was  Sardica,  within  the  frontier  of  the  Western  empire. 
This  council  was  held  a.d.  343.  The  Eastern  bishops  refused 
to  enter  the  council  unless  the  deposition  of  Athanasius  and 
Marcellus,  as  confirmed  at  Antioch,  was  held  to  be  valid. 
The  Western  bishops  refused,  proceeded  with  the  examina- 
tion of  the  cases  of  both  the  accused,  and  acquitted  them. 
They  declared  adherence  to  the  Nicene  Creed,  and  framed 
some  canons  to  regulate  existing  disorders.  The  Eastern 
bishops  meanwhile  had  adjourned  to  Philippopolis.  There 
they  denounced  the  bishops  at  Sardica  as  patrons  of  the 
errors  of  Marcellus,  and  set  forth  a  creed  nearly  in  the 
same  terms  as  the  fourth  creed  of  Antioch.  Another 
council  at  Antioch  (343)  once  more  affirmed  the  same  creed 
with  long  explanations  (hence  called  fiaKpuaTc^o^).  Also 
they  afresh  condemned  Marcellus,  and  now  also  his  disciple 


813-451]  ARIAN   CONTROVERSY POST-NIOENE  345 

Photinus  of  Sirmium.^  But,  on  the  other  hand,  they  con- 
demned certain  Arian  phrases,  and  strongly  affirmed  the 
unity  of  the  Son  with  the  Father.  All  these  utterances,  in 
fact,  embody  the  same  effort — to  come  as  near  as  possible  to 
the  West  in  doctrine,  while  they  still  try  to  win  a  victory  on 
the  personal  questions.  Arianising  Semi-Arians,  and  also  some 
who  were  Arians  simply,  might  choose  to  take  shelter  under 
these  formulae;  but  the  plain  sense  of  the  creeds  adopted 
was  unfavourable  to  both  these  forms  of  doctrine.  Hence  a 
certain  measure  of  forbearance  appeared.  The  West  still 
continued  to  uphold  Marcellus,  but  they  gave  up  the  defence 
of  Photinus.  Meanwhile  the  Arian  occupant  of  the  see  of 
Alexandria  died,  and  Constantius,  pressed  by  Constans, 
ordered  Athanasius  to  return  to  Alexandria  (346).  During 
these  years  the  influence  of  Julius  of  Eome  was  powerfully 
exerted  in  favour  of  Athanasius.  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia 
died  in  342.  He  had  practised  throughout  the  policy  of 
holding  together,  as  far  as  possible,  all  who  were  on  any 
ground  dissatisfied  with  Nicene  phraseology. 

III.  Constans  died  in  A.D.  350,  and  Constantius  became 
sole  ruler ;  but  troubles  in  his  empire  hampered  him  until 
353.  Then  it  turned  out  that  while  some  progress  had 
been  made  towards  mutual  understanding  as  between  the 
mass  of  the  East  and  the  mass  of  the  West,  Constantius 
and  his  chosen  clerical  advisers  were  bent  on  coui'ses  which 
perplexed  everything,  and  which  won  for  Arianism  a  tem- 
porary triumph  throughout  the  empire.  In  these  ecclesi- 
astical matters  Constantius  was  resolute  to  rule.  But  his 
conception  of  the  form  of  doctrine  which  he  should  cause 
to  prevail  was  not  always  the  same. 

In  the  East  Marcellus  and  Photinus  were  again  deposed 
as  early  as  351,  a  step  which  could  not  reasonably  be  com- 
plained of.  But  in  353  the  emperor  began  to  act  with 
vigour.       He    succeeded    in    inducing    the    members    of   a 

*  Photinus  advanced  a  doctrine  very  nearly  the  same  as  that  of  Panl  of 
Samosata.  The  divine  Logos  did  not  become  personal  in  Jesus,  as  Marcellus 
seemed  to  teach  •  but  the  unique  humanity  of  Jesus  was  a  subject  of  special 
divine  influence. 


346       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

Western  council  at  Aries,  with  one  exception,  to  condemn 
Athanasius  for  the  crimes  alleged  against  him.  In  355 
the  same  sentence  was  affirmed  again  at  Milan.  Hilary  of 
Poictiers  here  comes  into  view ;  he  was  sent  into  exile  for 
standing  out  against  the  emperor's  will.  Only  in  this 
indirect  way  as  yet  was  the  Nicene  faith  attacked  in  the 
West.  Soon  after,  Athanasius  was  again  driven  from  his 
church  by  an  armed  force  (356). 

Still,  therefore,  affairs  continued  to  present  the  same 
general  aspect  as  they  had  done  ever  since  the  reign  of 
Constantine.  That  is  to  say,  Arianism,  so  far  as  it  existed, 
was  content  to  shelter  itself  behind  Semi- Arianism  or  con- 
servatism. Some  of  the  phrases  in  which  the  Nicene  faith 
was  expressed  were  questioned,  and  it  was  maintained  that 
all  legitimate  interests  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  our 
Lord's  higher  nature  could  be  sufficiently  provided  for  by 
other  definitions,  and  these  were  put  forth  in  various  creeds. 
Further,  Marcelius  and  Photinus  were  attacked,  but  for  false 
teaching  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  Athanasius,  but  for 
alleged  personal  crimes. 

At  the  same  time  the  prolonged  discussions  had  done 
something  to  produce  dispositions  in  East  and  West  tending 
towards  peace.  But  at  this  point  influences  were  thrown 
into  the  situation  which  produced  a  scene  of  great  confusion. 

In  the  first  place  a  set  of  Arians  began  to  make  them- 
selves heard,  who  were  much  more  unmanageable  than  the 
politic  men  about  the  court ;  in  fact,  were  more  extreme  than 
Arius  himself.  They  were  hard,  shallow,  and  conceited 
men,  but  they  had  the  courage  of  their  opinions.  They  saw 
no  mystery  in  God's  being,  or  in  any  kind  of  being ;  and 
they  proclaimed  broadly  and  coarsely  that  the  Son,  being 
merely  a  creature,  is  simply  not  like  the  Father,  avo^oio^) 
whence  they  were  called  Anomoeans  (also  Exoukontians, 
Heterousiastians,  and  the  like).  Such  men  were  Aetius, 
Eunomius,   Eudoxius.^       Probably    by    plain,  strong   state- 

*  Against  them  the  famous  Orations  of  Gregory  Nazianzen  are  chiefly 
directed,  at  least  in  the  portions  which  have  regard  to  the  divinity  of  the  Son, 
Eudoxius  was  sometimes  separated  from  the  Anomoeans  as  an  Arian  simply. 


313-451]  ARIAN    CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE  347 

ments  they  made  an  impression  on  that  class  of  persons 
which  is  indisposed  to  recognise  mystery.  But  those  Semi- 
Arians^  who  had  mostly  at  heart  the  maintenance  of 
our  Lord's  divinity,  were  now  driven  by  recoil  to  realise 
more  fully  the  amount  of  their  agreement  with  the  Nicene 
theology. 

About  this  time,  however,  certain  court  bishops  who 
were  practically  Arians,  though  less  coarse  and  more 
politic  in  the  expression  of  their  Arianism,  gained  the  con- 
fidence of  Constantius ;  and  they  began  to  devise  plans  for 
giving  to  the  utterances  which  were  to  define  the  Church's 
faith  a  more  Arian  character.  Conspicuous  among  these 
men  were  Valens,  bishop  of  Mursa  (in  Pannonia),  and 
Ursacius  of  Singidunum  (Belgrade).  With  them  Acacius 
of  Constantinople  acted  for  a  time.  The  emperor  exerted 
his  authority  in  this  direction,  but  sometimes  for  a  more 
Arian  and  sometimes  for  a  less  Arian  formula. 

Under  these  influences  certain  creeds  of  Sirmium  came 
into  play ,2 — the  second,  third,  and  fourth, — associated  with 
successive  meetings  in  that  city.  The  second  (357)  asserts 
the  primeval  generation  of  the  Son,  disclaims  all  theories  about 
the  ovaCa,  and  emphasises  the  superior  majesty  of  the  Father. 
It  was  recognised  as  framed  in  the  interest  of  Arianism, 
but  Hosius  was  induced  to  sign  it,  and  so  purchased  his 
release  from  exile.  The  third  (358)  verged  towards  the 
conservative  Semi-Arians ;  for  the  emperor  had,  for  a  little, 
come  under  their  influence :  it  went  on  the  lines  of  one  of 
the  creeds  of  Antioch  (341).  Liberius  of  Eome  signed  this, 
and  obtained  leave  to  go  home.  The  fourth  was  planned  at 
a  small  meeting  (359).  Like  the  second,  it  repudiates  all 
terms  that  suggest  oucr/a,  but  confesses  the  Son  to  be  like 
the  Father  in  all  things  {Kara  iravTo),  as  the  Scriptures 
declare.    This  repelled  the  Semi-Arians,  for  they  were  aware 

*  Semi-Arians  began  now  to  be  more  habitually  distinguished  by  this 
name. 

'  Sirmium  was  frequently  the  residence  of  the  Court.  The  first  creed  of 
Sirmium  was  adopted  at  a  council  which  met  there  349  or  360.  This  creed 
was  identical  with  the  fourth  of  Antioch  (841-2). 


348       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

by  this  time  that  the  term  "  like  "  as  used  by  Ariaiis  applied 
merely  to  imitative  attributes  in  a  creature ;  hence  they 
claimed  that  the  likeness  must  apply  to  the  nature  under- 
lying the  attributes,  and  this  they  henceforth  expressed 
by  ofioLova-ta.  In  the  summer  and  autumn  of  the  same 
year  (359)  the  great  double  Council  of  Ariminum  (for  the 
West)  and  Seleucia  (for  the  East)  was  held.  More  than 
five  hundred  and  sixty  bishops  attended  at  the  one  place 
or  the  other.  It  is  said  that  the  majority  at  Ariminum 
was  Nicene,  at  Seleucia  conservative  Semi-Arian ;  but  the 
fourth  creed  of  Sirmium,  or  rather  a  modification  of  it 
in  a  rather  more  Arian  direction,  was  pressed  upon 
both ;  ^  and  by  force  and  persuasion  a  general  signature  by 
both  parties  was  at  last  attained.  Of  all  the  bishops  who 
attended,  only  Hilary  of  Poictiers  seems  to  have  finally 
refused  to  sign. 

The  emperor  had  thus  secured  a  general  submission  of 
East  and  West  alike,  and  had  committed  the  Church  to 
a  formula  planned  and  welcomed  by  Arians.  The  Nicene 
Creed  seemed  to  be  supplanted,  and  therefore  virtually 
cancelled.  Opinions,  however,  had  not  really  changed ;  and 
one  effect  of  the  proceeding  was  to  draw  together  con- 
scientious men  from  the  two  parties  of  the  Homoiousians 
and  Homoousians.  But  yet  for  some  years  the  Church, 
bewildered  and  baffled,  seemed  content  to  remain  under 
the  general  formula  of  Homoiism, — the  doctrine  of  indefinite 
likeness.  The  term  was  vague  enough  to  cover  different 
alternatives;  and  there  seemed  to  be  no  end  of  trouble  if 
anything  more  precise  were  aimed  at.  Hilary  of  Poictiers 
is  conspicuous  during  this  period  on  the  Nicene  side.  The 
more  orthodox  Semi- Arians  were  led  by  Basil  of  Ancyra. 
The  Arianising  Semi-Arians  were  represented  by  Acacius  of 
Csesarea,  and  the  Anomoeans  by  Eunomius  and  Eudoxius 
along  with  Aetius,  a  "  sophist,"  evidently  of  very  considerable 
ability,  but  constitutionally  irreverent  and  self-confident. 

IV.  In  361  Constantius  died,  and  Julian  his  cousin 
succeeded  to  the  throne.     Julian  professed  toleration ;  and 

^  It  omitted  icard  rdiro. 


313-451]  ARIAN    CONTROVERSY— ^POST-NICElSE  349 

he  allowed  all  banished  bishops  to  return  to  their  sees,  not 
without  the  hope  that  Christian  dissensions  might  in  this 
way  be  intensified.  On  the  whole  he  was  disappointed. 
The  more  grave  and  thoughtful  Christianity  was  not  Arian, 
and  it  gained  ground  in  most  places  by  its  moral  weight. 

About  this  time  or  before  it,  fresh  movements  came  to 
light.  Those  of  the  Semi-Arians  who  were  now  known  as 
Homoiousians,  began  to  discuss  in  a  fresh  and  careful  way 
some  of  the  terms  employed  in  the  controversy,  such  as  <j)vcri<^, 
ovaui,  viroaraai^,  irpoaayTTov.  These  discussions  tended  in 
the  direction  of  an  understanding  with  Athanasius  and  his 
friends.  Stress  was  still  laid  on  the  reasons  which  led  them 
to  judge  ofioLovauo^  the  more  fitting  word.  They  grant 
that  the  Father  and  the  Son  are  ramov  in  so  far  that  they 
are  both  irvevjia ;  but  in  so  far  as  they  are  distinct  hypo- 
stases, they  can  also  be  said  to  be  like. 

Athanasius  had  already  come  some  way  to  meet  these 
views  in  his  treatise  De  Synodis,  which  dates  from  359.  It 
was  an  important  effort  at  conciliation.  He  granted  that 
he  who  says  that  the  Son  is  of  like  nature  with  the  Father 
— and  also  says  that  the  Son's  ovaia  is  "  of  the  Father's" 
— is  not  far  from  saying  6/xoovaio^.  For  this  is  equivalent 
to  saying  ofioLovcno^  ck  t^?  ovala^;.  He  still  exerts  himself 
to  show  that  ofioovaco^  is,  however,  the  right  word.  Further, 
in  a  synod  held  at  Alexandria  in  362  he  procured  a 
declaration  that  men  who  were  willing  to  accept  the  Nicene 
Creed  should  be  owned  as  in  communion,  without  regard  to 
past  misunderstandings.  It  was  of  even  more  importance 
that  he  recognised  the  ambiguity  of  the  word  hypostasis, 
and  granted  that  one  might  say,  in  one  sense  (like  the 
Nicene  Creed)  one  hypostasis,  but  in  another  sense  three 
hypostases. 

Julian  fell  in  battle  in  363.  Jovian,  his  successor,  died 
in  364.  Valentinian  came  to  the  throne,  and  allotted  to 
himself  the  government  of  the  West.  He  ruled  on  the 
whole  in  a  wise  and  tolerant  spirit.  In  these  circumstances 
the  native  bent  of  the  West  asserted  itself,  in  the  election 
of  bishops  and  otherwise,  against  Homoiism  and  in  favour 


350       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d 

of  the  higher  teaching.  In  369  a  synod  at  Eome  again 
declared  for  the  Nicene  faith. 

The  government  of  the  East  had  been  left  by  Valen- 
tinian  to  his  brother  Valens.  Here  were  to  be  found 
Anomoeans  on  the  one  hand,  Nicene  Christians  on  the 
other ;  between  them  both  stood  Homoiians  who  represented 
the  creed  dominant  in  the  later  days  of  Constantius,  and  also 
those  conservative  Semi-Arians  who  stiffly  maintained  their 
own  formulas  (those  of  Antioch)  against  the  other  three 
parties :  they  were  now  generally  affirming  the  homoiousia. 
Valens  supported  the  Homoiians.  They  were  still  probably 
the  strongest  party,  and  therefore  even  on  grounds  of  policy 
might  seem  best  deserving  of  the  support  of  the  emperor. 

Disturbances  in  the  Eastern  empire,  which  for  a  time 
absorbed  the  attention  of  Valens,  encouraged  the  Homoi- 
ousian  party  (as  distinguished  from  the  Homoiians)  to  assert 
themselves.  They  re-enacted  some  of  their  old  creeds,  and 
deposed,  or  affected  to  depose,  Homoiian  bishops.  When 
the  political  troubles  passed  away,  Valens  showed  bis  resent- 
ment, and  vigorously  supported  Homoiism  throughout  the 
East.  His  action  caused  some  trouble  to  Nicene  men ;  but 
apparently  it  bore  still  more  hardly  on  the  Homoiousians.- 
As  the  result,  this  party,  already  realising  the  possibility  of 
friendly  relations  with  the  Nicene  theologians,  began  to 
move  still  more  decidedly  in  that  direction.  This  was  the 
main  importance  of  the  reign  of  Valens. 

Athanasius  was  now  becoming  old;  he  died  in  373. 
The  three  "  Cappadocians,"  Basil  and  the  two  Gregories, 
became  the  leading  Nicene  theologians.  They  had  started 
(Basil  certainly)  from  the  thought  of  "  likeness,"  or  from  the 
Homoiousia.^  But  from  the  beginning  their  face  was  set 
towards  the  Nicene  theology,  and  now  they  were  labouring 
to  bring  about  a  full  understanding.  They  exerted  import- 
ant influence  in  reuniting  those  who  were  accessible  to  the 
lessons  of  the  time.  Reunion  was  delayed  by  natural 
difficulties  regarding  terms,  by  the  influence  of  old  alliances, 
by  suspicions,  by  the  movements  of  reactionary  sections. 
» Basil, -^.  36L 


313-451]  ARIAN    CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE  351 

Still,  from  370  to  380,  the  intermediate  parties  tended  to 
break  up ;  and  the  new  currents  set,  not  towards  the  Arians, 
but  towards  the  Nicenians. 

It  was  important  that  the  policy  of  Valens  should  have 
driven  the  conservative  Semi-Arians  to  seek  this  alliance, 
leaving  the  Homoiians  in  the  enjoyment  of  imperial  favour. 
The  Homoiian  formula  had  really  no  definite  meaning :  that 
was  its  recommendation :  and  when  outward  influences 
ceased  to  hold  its  adherents  together,  they  proved  to  have, 
as  a  party,  no  strong  ties,  no  pervading  enthusiasms.  Those, 
on  the  other  hand,  who  adhered  to  the  creed  of  Antioch 
evinced  a  certain  constancy  in  keeping  their  ground  against 
Arianism.  Indignation  and  resentment  at  the  treatment 
they  experienced  reinforced  other  influences  which  were  draw- 
ing them  towards  the  Nicene  party ;  and  by  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  Valens  they  were  in  a  large  measure  ready  to  make 
common  cause  with  them.  If,  on  the  contrary,  this  party 
had  been  favoured  by  Valens  and  had  been  in  possession  of 
a  strong  position  at  the  end  of  his  reign,  they  might  have 
proved  more  stubborn  and  more  difficult  to  deal  with  than 
the  Homoiians  proved  to  be  in  the  same  circumstances. 

An  illustration  of  the  tenacity  of  conservative  Semi- 
Arianism  occurred  in  connection  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Bishops  who  could  have  given  up  their  con- 
troversy with  Nicene  modes  of  statement  regarding  the 
deity  of  Christ,  continued  to  make  difficulty  about  the 
corresponding  doctrine  in  reference  to  the  Third  Person. 
And  when  the  question,  which  had  been  left  open  for  a 
time,  was  pressed  to  a  decision,  they  maintained  their  ground 
and  suffered  for  it.  These  received  the  name  of  Mace- 
donians— from  Macedonius,  then  bishop  of  Constantinople. 

All  over  the  East  there  was  great  confusion  of  parties, 
of  creeds,  one  may  fear  also  of  Christian  manners.  But  in 
378  Valens  fell  at  Adrianople  in  the  great  battle  with  the 
Goths.  Presently  Theodosius  was  summoned  from  Spain  to 
assume  the  empire  of  the  East,  and  to  avert  the  ruin  of  the 
Roman  State.  As  soon  as  he  had  restored  the  framework 
pf  the  empire,  and  secured  a  respite  from  its  most  pressing 


352       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D 

dangers,  he  called  a  council  at  Constantinople,  which  met 
in  381.  The  council  was  a  meeting  of  Eastern  bishops,  and 
mustered  about  one  himdred  and  fifty  members.  The  new 
emperor  was  resolute  for  the  Nicene  faith.  Those  who  could 
not  be  conciliated  were  the  Anomoeans,  who  were  deprived  of 
their  churches  without  ceremony,  and  that  portion  of  the 
Semi-Arians  who  stood  out  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Their  case  was  contemplated  with  some  regret, 
and  efforts  were  made  to  bring  them  in.  But  they  too 
withdrew  from  the  council  and  gave  up  their  churches. 
The  council  reaffirmed  the  Nicene  faith,  and  condemned 
certain  heresies,  among  which  was  that  of  the  Uvev/jLa- 
TOfidxoc,  opponents  of  the  divinity  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  contest  was  at  an  end.  Within  the  empire  the 
Church  was  to  be  Nicene.  There  must  have  been  many 
surviving  Arians,  and  Arian  congregations  here  and  there 
still  struggled  with  the  difficulties  of  a  lost  cause :  especi- 
ally among  the  cultivated  classes  individuals  might  take 
leave  to  doubt  what  was  so  confidently  asserted  as  the 
faith.  It  continued  to  be  the  part  of  orthodox  teachers 
to  state  and  argue  the  case  against  Arianism.  But  for  the 
Church  of  the  Grseco-Roman  world  the  question  was  closed. 
Arianism  continued,  however,  to  be  the  national  religion 
of  the  Groths.  Sporadic  Christianity  had  existed  among 
the  Goths  for  more  than  a  century,  but  energetic  and 
organised  missions  among  them  dated  from  a  time  when 
opposition  to  the  Nicene  formula  was  very  prevalent  in 
the  East.  The  Christian  leaven  thrown  into  the  Gothic 
nationality  through  this  channel  retained  its  Anti-Nicene 
character.  One  cannot  doubt  that  this  Arianism  was  re- 
presented by  some  devoted  ministers,  and  it  diffused  a 
powerful  Christian  influence  among  a  vigorous  barbarian 
stock.  But  in  addition  to  all  the  disadvantage  implied 
in  Arian  teaching,  it  was  a  great  loss  alike  to  clergy  and 
to  laity  among  the  Goths,  that  they  were  in  this  way  cut  off, 
in  the  East  and  the  West,  from  religious  fellowship  with 
the  thought,  the  worship,  and  the  life  of  the  great  Church. 
This   Gothic   Arianism  failed  to  make  any  deep  mark  on 


313-451]  ARIAN    CONTROVERSY POST-NICENE  353 

history  as  a  religious  force.  No  doubt  the  imperfect  civilisa- 
tion of  the  Goths  was  reflected  in  their  church  life.  As  the 
result  of  conquest,  or  by  the  policy  of  Gothic  rulers  who, 
sooner  or  later,  concluded  that  the  time  had  come  to  give  up 
their  peculiarity,  the  races  which  had  received  an  Arian 
Christianity  eventually  passed  over  into  the  Catholic  fold. 
Ostrogoths,  Visigoths,  Burgundians,  Vandals,  Lombards — 
all  are  alike  in  that  respect.  One  would  like  to  know  more 
of  the  type  and  working  of  this  Christianity ;  but  if  there 
was  ever  much  to  tell,  the  tale  has  fallen  silent.  One 
may  guess  that  it  assumed  the  character  of  a  distinctive 
race  religion,  and  surrendered  itself  too  willingly  to  the 
influence  and  impulses  of  the  Gothic  nationality.  The  only 
personality  that  stands  out  impressively  is  the  venerable 
form  of  Ulfilas,  whose  memory  was  cherished  as  the  great 
evangelist  of  the  Goths,  and  who  gave  them  the  Scriptures 
in  their  own  tongue.  He  died  in  381.  The  Gothic 
version  of  the  Scriptures  is  still  accessible  in  the  beautiful 
MS.  which  is  preserved  at  Upsala.^ 

In  the  long  struggle,  the  course  of  which  has  been 
surveyed,  two  parties  held  positions  that  were  clear, — Arians 
on  the  one  side,  supporters  of  Nicsea  on  the  other.  Between 
them  were  various  forms  of  expression,  upon  which  men  of 
dififerent  shades  of  view  could  take  their  stand;  and  of 
these  men  often  availed  themselves,  who  desired  rather 
plausibly  to  conceal  their  views  than  plainly  to  express 
them.  The  Arians  and  some  of  those  who  passed  for 
Semi-Arians  often  acted  disingenuously,  and  their  history 
affords  little  evidence  of  religious  depth  or  of  moral  tone. 
On  the  other  hand,  of  the  Nicene  bishops  too  many  were 
apt  to  give  way  under  pressure ;  but  the  party  was  nobly 
led,  and  it  certainly  comprised  far  more  worth  and  con- 
science than  the  Arian.  But  another  party,  who  were 
charged  with  Semi-Arianism,  while  they  themselves  claimed 

*  Waitz,  Ueber  das  Leben  u.  die  Lehre  des  UlfiJa,  1840  ;  Bessell,  Das  Lehen 
d.  Ulfilas  u.  die  Bekehrung  der  Gothen,  1860  ;  KrafFt,  De  Fmitihus  Ulfilai 
Arianismi,  1860  ;  Gwatkin,  Studies  of  Arianism,  1882 ;  C.  Anderson  Scott, 
UlfiZas,  etc.,  Cambridge,  1885. 

23 


354       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

to  be  the  heirs  of  the  ancient  teaching,  must  be  looked  upon 
as  serious  and  self-respecting  men.  They  conceived  that  they 
expressed  the  divine  nature  of  Christ  in  safe  and  approved 
terms ;  but  they  were  apt  to  argue  themselves  into  question- 
able positions,  and  to  slide  into  alHances  not  favourable  to 
their  best  qualities.  Still  they  were  genuinely  opposed  to 
Arianism,  and  many  of  them  were  not  far,  in  their  views, 
from  their  Nicene  brethren. 

The  Nicene  Creed  proved  to  be  the  line  of  statement 
on  which,  at  the  stage  of  human  thought  then  reached,  the 
doctrine  of  the  Godhead  and  the  manhood  of  Christ  could 
be  upheld  as  a  church  doctrine  against  Arianism.  But 
for  the  interposition  of  the  civil  power  the  result  would 
have  been  earlier  reached:  even  with  that  interposition, 
and  in  spite  of  all  efforts  to  avert  the  consummation,  Nicene 
Christianity  wore  its  opponents  out  by  intellectual  and 
moral  strength  and  constancy.  This  fact  ought  to  impress 
us.  Even  those  who  may  think  that  terms  like  e'/c  tt}?  ovaia^;, 
vTToaTacrt^,  and  so  on,  cannot  claim  permanent  dominion 
over  our  thoughts, — who  may  wish  to  dismiss  them  for 
more  Biblical  expressions, — may  still  reasonably  feel,  that 
having  (at  the  critical  stage  which  we  have  traversed)  been 
found  practically  indispensable,  these  terms  have  won  a 
permanent  significance.  They  have  become  associated  with 
meanings  and  references  with  which  the  Church  cannot 
part,  and  for  the  sake  of  which  the  terms  themselves  must 
have  permanent  importance. 

A  question  has  been  raised,  whether  the  Nicene  faith, 
as  explained  and  defended  by  Basil  and  the  two  Gregories,  is 
quite  the  same  with  that  faith  as  explained  by  Athanasius.^ 
It  can  be  maintained,  for  instance,  that  some  new  phraseology 
and  some  new  illustrations  are  put  in  play  by  the  Cappa- 
docians.  In  particular,  the  distinction  between  ovata  and 
viroa-Taa-L^  is  permanently  fixed  in  the  Church  (see,  however, 
ante,  p.  349,  as  to  Athanasius'  decision  on  this  point),  so  that 
now,  while  one  ousia  continues  to  be  owned,  three  hypo- 
stases are  emphasised.  It  can  be  said,  therefore,  that  the 
^  Harnack,  Dogmengesch.  II.  chap.  vii.  3. 


813-451]         ART  AN   CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE  355 

distinction  of  the  Persons  is  now  more  marked,  and  the 
unity  not  so  much  ;  or  again,  that  Athanasius  held  the  Unity 
with  the  Trinity  as  the  mystery,  while  the  Cappadocians 
held  the  Trinity  with  the  Unity  as  the  mystery.  It  is 
pointed  out  also  that  in  the  Cappadocians  we  find  a  tendency 
to  resume  speculation,  after  the  example  of  Origen,  on  the 
significance  of  the  relations  in  the  Trinity,  to  dwell  on  the 
relations  of  the  X070?  to  the  K6afio<;,  and,  in  general,  to 
make  extensive  use  of  Platonic  doctrines.  All  this,  if  it  be 
so,  seems  to  amount  to  no  more  than  the  shade  of  difference 
necessarily  arising  when  new  minds  are  embarking  in  a 
great  discussion.^ 

The  real  result  was  that  the  true  and  full  divinity  of 
Christ  came  to  recognition  throughout  the  Church,  through 
an  agreement  between  Egypt  and  the  West  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  party  which  now  formed  the  mass  of  the 
East  upon  the  other. 

Note. — The  Mcene  Creed, 

The  authentic  decree  of  Constantinople  (381)  is  contained 
in  the  first  canon.     It  is  in  these  terms : — 

"  The  creed  of  the  three  hundred  and  eighteen  fathers  who 
met  at  Nicsea  in  Bithynia  shall  not  be  annulled,  but  shall 
remain  in  force ;  and  all  heresy  shall  be  anathematised,  and, 
in  particular,  that  of  the  Eunomians  or  Anomoeans,  and  that 
of  the  Arians  or  Eudoxians,  and  that  of  the  Semi-Arians  or 
Pneumatomachoi,  and  that  of  the  Sabellians,  the  Marcellians, 
and  that  of  the  Photinians  and  the  Apollinarists." 

An  opinion,  or  impression,  early  gained  currency  that  the 
Constantinopolitan  fathers  had  sanctioned  a  new  version  of  the 
Nicene  Creed,  or  had  issued  the  Nicene  Creed  with  certain 
changes  of  phrase,  and  additional  clauses.  The  later  form, 
therefore,  came  to    be    regarded    by  many  as  the  finally 

^  I  should  admit  that  Athanasius  is  best  understood  as  holding  the  identity 
of  the  oiffia  in  the  strict  sense,  sometimes  spoken  of  as  "numerical  identity," 
which  is  also  the  habitual  mode  of  Augustine's  thinking  ;  while  Basil  has  no 
difficulty  in  saying  that  bfioo^ffios  denotes  only  specific  identity, — sameness  of 
nature, — as  when  we  say  that  two  men  are  the  same  in  nature  or  essence.  I 
am  not  able  to  answer  for  Athanasius,  but  I  should  be  surprised  to  find  him 
saying  so, 


356       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d 

sanctioned  form  of  the  creed,  and  in  that  character  it  appears 
(with  a  further  change, — the  clause  of  twofold  Procession)  in 
the  service  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  in  the  Roman 
Missal.  But  there  is  no  real  evidence  that  the  Constantin- 
opolitan  fathers  changed  the  terms  of  the  Nicene  Creed,  or 
authorised  the  later  form  in  its  room. 

The  well-known  words  of  the  creed  in  its  later  form  are : — 
"We  believe  in  one  God  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of 
Heaven  and  Earth,  of  all  things  visible  and  invisible:  and 
one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  only-begotten  Son  of  God,  begotten 
of  the  Father  before  all  ages,  Light  of  Light,  true  God  of  true 
God,  begotten,  not  made,  consubstantial  with  the  Father: 
who  for  the  sake  of  us  men,  and  for  our  salvation  came 
down  from  heaven,  and  was  incarnate  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  of  Mary  the  Virgin,  and  became  man :  He  was  crucified 
for  our  sake  under  Pontius  Pilate,  and  suffered  and  was 
buried,  and  rose  on  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures, 
and  ascended  into  Heaven,  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father,  and  cometh  with  glory  to  judge  quick  and  dead ; 
of  whose  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end:  and  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  Lord  the  Life  Giver,  who  proceedeth  from  the 
Father,^  who  with  the  Father  and  the  Son  is  together 
worshipped  and  glorified,  who  spake  by  the  prophets:  and 
in  one  Holy  Catholic  Apostolic  Church.  We  confess  one 
baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins ;  we  look  for  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead,  and  the  life  of  the  world  to  come." 

There  is  no  reliable,  no  contemporary  report  that  the 
council  of  Constantinople  revised  the  Mcene  Creed,  or  set  it 
forth  revised.  It  is  very  unlikely  that  they  should  have 
done  so.  Up  to  that  time  all  the  Nicene  men  had  refused 
to  alter  the  Nicene  Creed  in  any  particular.  Moreover,  the 
alterations  are  unaccountable,  particularly  the  omission  of 
the  clause  Ix  rijg  oWiag  rou  varpog — on  which  Athanasius  set 
so  much  value.  Still  further,  the  creed  is  older  than  the 
council.  Its  characteristic  features  appear  in  the  Ancoratus 
of  Epiphanius,  a  work  which  appeared  in  374  It  has  been 
suggested,  therefore,  that  this  was  not  a  revision  of  the  Nicene 
Creed,  but  a  revised  form  of  an  older  creed  of  Jerusalem  (a 
creed  used  in  baptism  in  that  church)  which  may  have  been 
readjusted  and  enriched  with  some  Nicene  phrases  by  Cyril 
of  Jerusalem  when  he  returned  to  his  church  (after  deposi- 
tion) in  362.  This  is  the  view  which  best  accounts  for  its 
special  features. 

*  "  And  from  the  Son,"  in  later  Western  form. 


313-4r>l]  ARIAN    CONTROVERSY — POST-NICENE  357 

The  ascription  of  it  to  the  Constantinopolitan  council  can 
only  be  accounted  for  conjecturally.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  had 
been  associated  with  Semi-Arian  men  and  counsels,  and  at 
Constantinople  he  might  quite  possibly  meet  with  suspicions 
as  to  his  soundness  in  the  faith.  To  remove  these  he  might 
recite  the  creed  of  his  church,  and  procure  an  attestation  of 
it  as  orthodox.  Some  tradition  of  this  might  exist,  and  there 
might  be  a  disposition  in  some  quarters  to  recur  to  it  on 
account  of  the  clauses  regarding  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  are 
fuller  than  the  Nicene.  No  mention  of  it  occurs  at  the 
council  of  Ephesus  (431).  At  Chalcedon  (451)  reference 
seems  to  have  been  made  to  this  form  of  creed  as  having 
been  authorised  at  Constantinople,  and  though  the  statement 
seems  to  have  created  some  surprise,  it  appears  to  have  been 
acquiesced  in. 

The  fact  that  Epiphanius  appealed  to  this  creed,  or  some- 
thing like  it,  in  the  Ancoratus  is  explained  by  his  original 
connection  with  the  Palestinian  church;  the  creed  in  use 
there  had  special  associations  for  him. 

See  Gwatkin,  The  Arian  Controversy,  p.  159  ff.,  and  Hort, 
Two  Dissertations^  Camb.  1876,  p.  73  ff.  Hefele,  Concilien- 
geschichte^  ii.  pp.  9  and  422,  451,  maintains  the  older  view, 
that  this  creed  was  sanctioned  at  Constantinople, 


CHAPTEE    XXII 

Minor  Controversies 
a.  apollinarius  ^ 

Works  and  fragments  are  collected  by  J.  Draseke,  Apollinanus  von 
Laodicea,  Lehen,  u.s.w.,  Leipsic,  1892.  Athanasius,  De  Incarnatione 
contra  Ayollinarium.  Basil  Caes.  E'pp.  265.  Greg.  Naz.  E'p'p.  ci., 
cii.,  ciii.  Greg.  Nyss.  Antirhet,  in  Zacagni,  Collectanea^  torn,  i., 
Rom.  1698  ;  Migne,  vol.  xlvi.  Leontius,  Adv.fraudes  Apollinarist.y 
in  Mai,  Spicileg.  Bomanum,  xii.     Dorner,  Person  Christiy  i.  p.  957  fol. 

During  the  debates  concerning  the  higher  nature  of  our 
Lord,  questions  about  His  manhood  must  occur,  and  some 
men  were  already  taking  positions  ^  upon  the  subject.  Arius, 
for  instance,  ascribed  to  our  Lord  a  human  body,  but  not 
a  human  soul.  But  variations  on  the  point,  where  they 
existed,  had  not  as  yet  attracted  much  attention.  Apol- 
linarius  first  proposed  and  urged  a  doctrine  which,  by  its 
theoretical  coherence,  the  energy  of  thought  applied  in  its 
support,  and  the  range  of  consequences  connected  with  it, 
was  felt  to  challenge  a  decision. 

Apollinarius  is  on  all  accounts  an  interesting  personage. 
In  mental  force  he,  perhaps,  equalled  any  of  those  who 
signalised  themselves  in  later  controversies  on  the  same  field. 
Yet  he  did  not  command  the  attention  of  men  in  general,  nor 
did  he  succeed  in  concentrating  on  his  opinions  the  amount 
of  interest  which,  in  the  form  of  hate  or  friendship,  waited 
afterwards   on   Nestorius   or   on  Eutyches.      Arianism   was 

^  By  the  Latins  especially  the  name  is  written  ApoUinaris ;  but  the  other 
spelling  is  better  authorised. 

2  See  survey  of  i)revious  impressions  in  Dorner,  Person  Christiy  3**  Epoch,  2^ 
Abth.  capp.  1  and  2. 

8&8 


A.D.  313  451]  MINOR   CONTROVERSIES  359 

still  in  the  field,  contending  for  its  life,  and  the  minds  of 
men  were  preoccupied.  Hence,  although  leading  theologians 
felt  the  edge  of  the  argument  of  Apollinarius,  and  were  con- 
strained to  weigh  carefully  the  reasons  on  which  he  relied, 
and  though  the  council  of  Constantinople  rejected  his 
peculiar  opinions  as  heresy, — yet  none  of  the  sensations 
were  awakened  that  attend  a  great  process.  Apollinarius 
was  dislodged,  and  dropped  with  little  noise.  Yet  he  had 
already  realised  the  significance  of  questions  which  were  to 
be  hotly  agitated  in  the  fifth  century. 

Two  persons  of  the  same  name — father  and  son — have 
to  be  distinguished,  of  whom  the  younger  concerns  us  now ; 
the  father  was  born  probably  about  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century,  and  the  son  died  about  392.  Both  were 
men  of  literary  enthusiasm ;  and  when  the  Emperor  Julian 
prohibited  the  admission  of  Christians  to  the  schools  of 
classic  literature,  the  two  undertook  to  produce  new  classics 
on  the  basis  of  the  Biblical  writings.  Among  other  efforts 
in  this  line  were  a  tragedy  called  "  Christus  Patiens,"  and  a 
Homeric  version  of  the  Psalms.  Whatever  the  unwisdom 
might  be  of  making  this  attempt,  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the 
Christian  zeal  which  prompted  it.  Afterwards  the  son 
became  bishop  of  Laodicea.  He  signalised  himself  by 
taking  part,  ably  and  usefully,  in  the  discussions  then  going 
on.  He  wrote  in  defence  of  Christianity  against  Julian  and 
Porphyry ;  he  controverted  the  Manicheans  and  the  Arians ; 
he  appeared  against  Marcellus.  He  was  on  friendly  terms 
with  the  great  defenders  of  the  Nicene  orthodoxy,  such  as 
Athanasius  and  Basil  of  Caesarea.  A  synod  at  Alexandria 
(362)  is  conceived  to  have  condemned  the  Apollinarian  error 
without  naming  the  teacher.^  It  was  about  375,  however, 
that  Apollinarius  began  to  separate,  or  to  be  separated,  from 
the  Church.  The  council  of  Constantinople  (381)  named  his 
followers  along  with  other  sects  whose  tenets  were  rejected.^ 

'  See  on  this  Doraer,  i.  p.  984.  It  can  be  argued  that  Apollinarius,  who 
was  not  named,  was  not  aimed  at. 

2  Can.  1.  In  philosophy,  Apollinarius  is  said  to  have  been  a  follower  of 
Aristotle  mainly. 


360       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

Arius,  as  already  noticed,  held  that  our  Lord  took  flesh 
only,  i.e,  a  human  body, — the  created  Logos  taking  the  place 
of  the  soul.^  He  taught  also  that  Christ  was  mutable,  in 
the  sense  of  liability  to  fall.  However,  for  Arius  that  muta- 
bility applied  not  only  to  the  incarnate  Christ,  but  to  the 
higher  pre-existent  nature  as  well.  That,  being  no  more  than 
a  creature,  might  possibly  go  astray.  Apollinarius,  on  the 
other  hand,  attached  great  importance  to  our  Lord's  sinless- 
ness  ;  and  he  valued  highly  the  Nicene  assertion  of  the  Son's 
essential  divinity  on  this  account  as  well  as  on  others,  that 
Christ  as  the  Eternal  Son  abides  immutably  in  the  Father 
and  in  the  truth.  But  this  might  lead  him  to  scrutinise 
with  peculiar  keenness  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  in 
order  to  make  sure  that  the  interest  he  cared  for  was  secure 
on  the  human  side  also. 

It  appeared  to  him  that  the  union  of  complete  God  to 
complete  man  was  an  incongruous  thought.  It  could  never 
make  a  real  unity.  You  may  call  it  a  unity ;  really  it  is 
and  can  be  only  a  collocation  of  two.  On  that  footing,  then, 
there  are  two  Sons,  the  divine  and  the  human :  and  these 
may  be  related  to  one  another,  but  two  they  continue  to  be. 
The  mind  of  Apollinarius  was  strongly  held  by  these  im- 
pressions. There  is,  for  example,  a  confession  of  faith  in  the 
Incarnation,  which  is  printed  among  the  works  of  Athanasius 
(Migne,  iv.  26),  but  which  is  now  ascribed  to  Apollinarius. 
All  through,  what  he  protests  against  is  the  idea  of  two  in 
Christ — two  Sons,  one  who  is  worshipped  and  one  who  is 
not.  This  is  so  strongly  emphasised  that  older  editors 
argued  that  the  tract  must  be  later  than  Athanasius  ;  it  must 
be  the  work  of  someone  who  wrote  in  the  fifth  century, 
when  Nestorianism  was  under  discussion,  and  who  wished  to 
refute  that  error.  But  the  protest  embodied  in  the  tract  is 
apparently  not  against  Nestorius,  but  against  the  conse- 
quences which  Apollinarius  believed  to  be  involved  in  the 
common  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  and  which  he  was  deter- 
mined to  fasten  upon  it. 

^  The  Nicene  Fathers  probably  had  this  in  view  when  they  not  only  used 
the  common  phrase  of  taking  flesh,  but  said  also  that  our  Lord  became  man. 


313-451]  MINOR   CONTROVERSIES  §61 

On  the  common  representation,  then^ — so  Apollinarius 
argued, — there  are  two  in  Christ ;  and  if  there  are  two, 
God  is  not  incarnate;  the  man  is  another  than  He. 
Further,  each  of  the  two  will  have  his  own  history. 
What  kind  of  history  will  it  be?  Here  we  come  upon 
the  main  motive  of  Apollinarius, — the  danger  which  he 
seemed  to  see,  and  which  he  was  resolute  to  avert. 

If  there  is  here  a  complete  man,  with  all  the  elements 
of  human  nature,  then  there  must  be  free  will.  Now  free 
will  in  a  creature  means  liability  to  sin,  in  such  a  sense 
that  there  almost  must  be  sin  sometime.  But  supposing 
sin  to  be  avoided,  it  is  avoided  by  the  same  free  will ;  and 
our  redemption  turns  on  the  precarious  effort  of  a  man. 
If  Christ  is  to  avail  for  us,  what  He  does  must  not  be 
ascribed  to  a  human  subject; — neither  His  sinlessness  nor 
His  death.  It  must  be  a  divine  act.  Eedemption  must 
proceed  in  a  way  that  is  perfect  and  divine.  But  if  you 
ascribe  it  to  one  who  is  really  possessed  of  a  complete 
personal  life  apart  from  God,  then  you  have  only  an 
inspired  man,  subject  to  the  inevitable  human  in- 
firmities. 

To  escape  all  this  Apollinarius  reverted  to  the  three- 
fold division  of  human  nature;  body,  soul,  and  spirit. 
Christ,  he  said,  assumed  the  human  body,  adp^,  and  the 
soul  or  principle  of  animal  life,  "^v^i^ ;  but  the  Logos  is 
the  rational  and  spiritual  centre,  the  vov<;,  the  seat  of  self- 
consciousness  and  self-determination.  The  Logos,  there- 
fore, in  this  case  is,  or  takes  the  place  of,  irpevfia.  The 
usage  of  language  favoured  this  speculation.  It  was  usual 
to  speak  of  God  as  Trvev/Ma.  The  Logos  therefore  was  so. 
But  we  ascribe  to  man  also  irvevfjia,  as  the  highest  element 
in  him.  If  in  the  case  of  Christ  the  Logos  is  present, 
why  suppose  a  second  (human)  irvevfia  to  occupy  a  place 
which  is  filled  already  ?  Holding  this,  Apollinarius  conceived 
himself  able  to  assert  without  embarrassment  the  unity 
of  Christ ;  e.g.  the  material  body  is  His,  His  very  own. 
Just  as  in  my  own  case  my  body  is  part  of  me — it  belongs 
to  that  intellectual  nature  which  is  myself,  so  in  the  in- 


362       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

carnation  the  body  was  the  body  of  the  Logos,  was  part 
of  Hhn,  and  with  Him  is  worshipped. 

The  Logos  Himself  becomes  vov<;  in  Christ :  so  He 
concurs  in  constituting  that  supernatural  man,  and  so  the 
Unity  is  secure.  The  Logos,  then,  did  not  "  assume  a 
man,"  as  was  sometimes  said  (very  often  in  the  West — 
assumpsit  hominem),  but  was  found  in  fashion  as  a  man, 
and  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh.  The  union  is  perfect. 
God  in  Himself  has  no  passions,  but  through  the  flesh 
which  is  His,  He  has  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
flesh  is  wholly  taken  into  the  nature  of  the  Second  Person ; 
— one  subject  possesses,  as  inseparably  His,  all  the  elements, 
capacities,  and  experiences.  In  this  way  we  have  the  moral 
and  spiritual  immutability  really  guaranteed.  This  irvev^a 
cannot  fail.  To  the  advocates  of  the  ordinary  scheme, 
ApoUinarius  would  have  said,  According  to  your  theory, 
you  have  in  Christ  two  natures,  which  must  be  two 
persons,  whether  you  own  it  or  not.  But  now,  on  my 
showing,  there  is  but  one  nature,  just  as,  in  man,  body, 
soul,  and  spirit  are  one  human  nature.  The  adp^  and 
the  "^vxi  ^^^  ^^^  aspects  of  the  one  nature  of  the  Incar- 
nate Word,  fxia  ^i)(n<i  rov  ©eov  \6yov  a-eo-apKcofiivy,  ovBcfJuia 
!)La[p6aL<;  tov  Xoyov  koX  tt}?  aapKo<;  avTov  iv  ral^;  Oelai^ 
TTpocpiperac  <ypa(paL<;,  ak\'  earl  fiia  (j^vac^!,  jxla  viroaTaat^, 
fjLLa  ivepyeta. 

ApoUinarius  connected  all  this  with  a  remarkable  and 
interesting  speculation.  There  is  a  sense,  according  to  him, 
in  which,  before  the  Incarnation,  the  divine  nature  of  the 
X0709  is  eminently  and  ideally  human.  Man  was  made 
in  the  image  of  God.  But  if  the  Word  of  God  is  God's 
true  essential  image,  then  He  is  not  foreign  to  the  spirit 
of  man,  is  rather  man's  perfect  archetype.  When  He  fills 
this  place  in  the  Incarnation,  in  some  eminent  sense  it 
is  His  own  place.  The  Logos  even  before  the  Incarnation 
is  the  heavenly  man  (the  second,  spiritual  Adam,  the  Lord 
from  heaven);  Godhead  in  Him  was  destined  to  Incar- 
nation. It  is  in  some  ways  His  nature  to  come  among 
us  as  He  has  done.     We  are  weak  and  unfinished  without 


313-451]  MINOR    CONTROVERSIES  863 

Him :  we  are  not,  indeed,  true  men  until  we  are  joined  to 
this  truest  man.  The  striking  thing  about  Apollinarius  is, 
at  how  many  points  he  anticipates  later  developments  and 
speculations. 

Those  who  opposed  Apollinarius  were  not  prepared  to 
meet  all  his  instances  with  conclusive  answers.  The  point 
about  free  will  was  not  very  satisfactorily  dealt  with ;  and 
the  question,  how  it  should  be  thought,  assuming  the 
presence  of  perfect  and  complete  human  nature,  that  the 
personality  is  one  only  and  not  two,  was  not  very  distinctly 
answered.  What  men  mainly  held  by  was  the  conviction 
that  the  Incarnation  meant  the  assumption  of  all  that 
pertains  to  manhood,  in  order  to  the  redemption  of  it  all. 

Apollinarius  embodied  fully  in  his  thought  a  tendency  of 
the  time  to  think  of  Christ  as  one  in  whom  the  divine 
presence  practically  supersedes  human  experiences.  That 
tendency,  indeed,  was  to  prevail  for  ages.  But  even  the 
men  who  in  some  degree  exemplified  it  still  felt,  when 
it  was  thus  put  into  theoretical  shape,  that  it  contradicted 
the  genuine  teaching  of  the  Gospels.  They  appealed  to 
the  recorded  life  and  thoughts  and  words  to  bear  them 
out  in  asserting  the  true  manhood  as  well  as  the  true 
Godhead.  It  was  felt,  therefore,  that  according  to  the 
manhood  Christ  is  6/jLoovcrto<;  with  us.  And  that  was 
eventually  declared  at  Chalcedon. 

Apollinarius  did  not  leave  a  very  large  number  of 
followers,  but  they  were  attached,  confident,  and  some  of 
them  not  very  scrupulous.  Knowing  that  their  master's 
teaching  was  not  to  be  received  under  his  own  name, 
they  were  dexterous  and  diligent  in  fathering  works  of 
his  on  approved  orthodox  names,  in  order  that  his  thoughts, 
at  least,  might  find  approbation.  This  was  observed  and 
complained  of  in  antiquity ;  but  for  a  long  time  one  could 
not  be  sure  how  far  the  complaint  was  well  grounded. 
Recent  writers,  however,  have  established  a  number  of 
instances  ;  for  example,  the  Kara  fiepo^;  TriVrt?,^  among  the 
works  of  Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  the  €K6eai<;  irlaTew^  among 
*  See  Draseke,  op.  eit. 


364       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

those  of  Justin  Martyr,  and  others  among  the  works  of 
Felix  and  Julius  of  Eome.  One  among  those  of  Athanasius 
has  been  quoted  above.  Hence  some  of  his  expressions 
acquired  for  a  time  the  credit  of  having  been  authorised 
by  Athanasius.^ 


B.    ORIGENISTIC    CONTROVEESIES 

The  questions  raised  by  Apollinarius  did  not,  at  that 
time,  awaken  much  attention.  Fully  forty  years  (from 
A.D.  381)  were  to  pass  ere  the  subject  became  pressing. 
Meanwhile  discussions  regarding  the  teaching  of  Origen 
created  some  disturbance. 

In  that  great  teacher's  own  time,  and  in  the  generation 
which  followed,  some  of  his  tenets  had  been  questioned.^ 
The  discussion  turned  up  again  at  the  close  of  the  fourth 
century,  and  it  was  destined  to  revive  at  a  still  later  date. 

Origen's  teaching,  as  it  lay  in  his  own  writings,  included 
very  free  speculation,  but  it  was  pervaded  by  Christian 
enthusiasm;  and  the  wish,  at  least,  to  render  the  great 
articles  of  the  faith  credible  and  acceptable  could  be 
seen  even  in  his  eccentricities.  Besides,  his  writings  were 
a  storehouse  of  learning  and  suggestion,  and  his  character 
had  left  an  ineffaceable  impression.  Gratitude  and  admira- 
tion were  the  sentiments  cherished  towards  him  by  the 
leading  minds  of  the  century  following  his  death.  The 
champions  of  orthodoxy  during  the  Arian  controversy 
treated  his  name  with  great  respect.  Athanasius  cites 
him  against  the  Arians,  maintaining  that  his  main  express 
teaching,  positive  and  negative,  was  good,  and  that  stress 
should  not  be  laid  on  what  he  had  said  hypothetically, 
or  had  hazarded  in  controversy.  The  three  Cappadocians, 
also  Didymus  of  Alexandria,  Hilary  of  Poictiers,  and  Ambrose 
take  the  same  tone. 

But  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  prolonged  dogmatic 

^  Even  as  early  as  Cyril  of  Alexandria. 

*Orig.  Up.  ad  Amicos,  Lomm.  xvii.  p.  6;  Eomil.  in  Lu,  xxv.,  Lomm 
V.  p.  182 ;  Pamph.  Apol.y  Lomm.  xxv.  ;  see  ante,  p.  179. 


313-45ll  MINOR    CONTROVERSIES  365 

controversy  had  produced  its  usual  results ;  the  feeling  that 
error  was  the  truly  fatal  evil  was  growing,  and  the  craving 
was  strong  for  a  coherent  order  of  Christian  statement, 
in  which  security  and  rest  might  be  found.  Not  every 
one  could  fairly  estimate  Origen  as  a  whole.  And  men 
whose  attention  was  arrested  mainly  by  his  brilliant 
singularities,  could  be  startled  and  repelled. 

It  is  true  that  Origen  sincerely  professed  to  hold  all 
the  great  articles  recognised  as  binding  in  his  day.  But, 
wishing  to  make  them  comprehensible  in  their  relation 
to  the  world  of  experience,  he  had  projected  an  imaginative 
history  of  Creation  and  Eedemption.  It  was  a  kind  of 
evangelical  Gnosticism.  He  undertook  to  find  a  place  for 
all  the  articles  of  the  creed  in  this  new  setting;  but  it 
could  hardly  be  doubted  that  some  of  those  articles  were 
severely  pressed,  and  even  intrinsically  modified,  by  their 
new  environment.  And  the  men  of  a.d.  390  did  not 
know  how  different  the  conditions  for  a  Christian  thinker 
had  been  in  a.d.  220.  They  judged  him  by  the  light  of 
their  own  day. 

Epiphanius  (born  in  Palestine  perhaps  cire.  315)  spent 
some  years  of  his  early  life  in  Egypt  among  the  religious 
recluses.  Already  he  found  there  two  distinct  tendencies, 
exhibited  in  a  friendly  or  in  a  hostile  attitude  to  the 
works  of  Origen;  and  he  was  himself  associated  with  the 
latter  party.  He  devoted  himself  to  ascetic  life,  and 
returning  to  Palestine  built  a  monastery  at  his  native 
place.  In  367  he  became  bishop  of  Salamis;  about  the 
year  374  he  wrote  his  Ancoratus,  and  before  377  his 
Panarion.  The  latter  is  a  review  and  confutation  of 
heresies  so  far  as  known  to  Epiphanius,  and  exhibits  him 
as  a  man  of  sincere  and  narrow  orthodoxy,  of  extensive 
reading,  of  little  judgment  or  discrimination,  and  of  great 
zeal.  In  both  works  he  takes  ground  earnestly  against 
Origen,  although  his  conception  of  the  faults  in  Origen's 
teaching  is  confused  and  superficial.^     These  literary  per- 

*  Panarion,  lib.  ii.  t.  i.  18.     This  article  extends  to  nearly  a  hundred  and 
fifty  pages  in  Oehler's  edition. 


366       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

formances  had  procured  consideration  for  Epiphanius ;  and 
a  reputation  for  saintship,  which  gave  him  much  influence, 
had  been  earned  by  his  zealous  and  self-denying  life.  By 
and  by  alarming  reports  reached  him  of  the  respect  for 
Origen  cherished  among  the  recluses  in  Palestine. 

In  Palestine,  devout  persons  from  various  quarters  had 
formed  communities  for  the  purposes  of  retired  religious  life. 
Some  of  them  were  men  of  scholarly  instincts  and  habits ; 
many  were  disposed  to  seek  edification  in  mastering  the  full 
range  of  Christian  knowledge.  The  two  impulses  wrought 
together  in  promoting  the  study  of  Christian  literature. 
Far  the  most  distinguished  man  among  them  was  Jerome 
(Hieronymus),  who  had  settled  at  Bethlehem  about  A.D.  386. 
Kufinus  (commonly  called  of  Aquileia)  had  settled  at  the 
Mount  of  Olives  in  378.  They  were  old  friends,  and  for  a 
number  of  years  continued  to  cherish  great  regard  for  one 
another.  Jerome  had  felt  the  attraction  of  the  genius,  the 
learning,  and  the  Christian  enthusiasm  of  Origen :  though 
he  had  not  imbibed  his  peculiar  doctrines,  he  had  already 
translated  some  of  his  writings,  and  during  his  stay  at 
Eome  had  written  with  great  scorn  against  those  who 
decried  Origen.  In  the  year  386  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  was 
succeeded  in  that  bishopric  by  John.  He,  too,  was  a  man  of 
scholarly  sympathies,  and  resented  the  tendency  to  sacrifice 
the  reputation  of  Origen  to  what  he  regarded  as  ignorance 
and  bigotry.  This  was  the  situation  the  report  of  which 
awoke  the  anxieties  of  the  bishop  of  Salamis. 

In  394  Epiphanius  found  or  made  pretexts  for  visiting 
the  scene  in  person.  In  Jerusalem  he  spoke  and  preached 
against  the  tenets  of  Origen,  came  into  sharp  collision  with 
John  the  bishop,  and  exerted  all  possible  pressure  upon 
Eufinus  and  Jerome.  Eufinus,  with  John,  disregarded  his 
remonstrances,  and  treated  him  as  a  well-meaning  but  an 
unreasonable  person.  Jerome,  on  the  other  hand,  gave  way : 
he  resolved  to  repudiate  his  early  enthusiasm  for  Origen  as 
inconsiderate,  and  he  became  henceforth  an  opponent.  It 
is  not  easy  to  believe  that  his  motives  were  worthy.  Appre- 
hension regarding  his  own  reputation  for  orthodoxy  and  his 


313-451]  MINOR   CONTilOVERSIES  367 

influence  in  the  Church  may  naturally  be  supposed  to  have 
swayed  him.  Yet  allowance  should  perhaps  be  made  for  a 
growing  difficulty  in  the  situation.  It  was  becoming  more 
difficult  to  disguise  the  extent  of  Origen's  divergences  from 
ordinary  teaching,  and  more  difficult,  also,  to  offer  a  success- 
ful defence  or  palliation  of  it  to  the  minds  of  ordinary 
people.  This  irruption  of  Epiphanius  into  the  bishopric  of 
John  had  the  effect  both  of  creating  serious  trouble  for  that 
prelate,  and  of  alienating  Eufinus  from  Jerome.  They  were 
reconciled  to  one  another  afterwards  (in  a.d.  397),  partly 
through  the  good  offices  of  Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexandria  ; 
but  the  misunderstanding  broke  out  again  more  fatally  than 
before.  For  Eufinus,  returning  to  Italy  with  his  friend  and 
patroness  Melania,  continued  to  translate  and  recommend 
Origen,  and  in  doing  so,  appealed  to  the  good  opinion  of 
him  which  Jerome  had  in  earlier  days  expressed.  This  at 
once  produced  a  strained  situation,  and  bitter  controversy 
followed.^ 

The  scene  now  changes  to  Egypt.  The  bishop  of 
Alexandria  was  Theophilus  (since  A.D.  385).  This  prelate 
was  disposed,  at  first,  to  protect  the  reputation  of  Alex- 
andria's greatest  Christian  scholar;  his  most  intimate 
friends  were  among  the  Nitrian  monks  who  studied  Origen 
with  predilection ;  and  when  the  trouble  arose  in  Jerusalem 
he  sympathised  with  John,  and  exerted  himself  to  restore 
good  feeling  between  Jerome  and  his  bishop,  and  also 
between  Jerome  and  Eufinus.     Moreover,  he  dealt  sharply 

*  Rufinus  translated  the  Apology  for  Origen  by  Pamphilus,  and  issued  a 
tract  on  the  corruption  of  Origen's  writings  by  heretics  ;  this  being  the  plea 
by  means  of  which  he  accounted  for  many  of  Origen's  more  startling  expres- 
sions. Origen  himself  had  made  the  same  complaint.  Then  Rufinus  trans- 
lated the  lUpl  'Xpx^v  with  a  preface,  in  which  he  referred  to  Jerome's  trans- 
lations, and  to  the  praise  which  Jerome  had  bestowed  on  Origen  in  earlier 
days.  This  led  Jerome  to  remonstrate,  and  also  to  prepare  a  new  translation 
of  two  books  of  the  Ilepi  'ApxCov,  in  order  to  reveal  the  heterodoxies  which  the 
translation  of  Rufinus  had  concealed.  An  "  apology  "  by  Rufinus  and  a  sharp 
letter  (now  lost)  to  Jerome  began  the  acrid  stage  of  the  dispute.  Jerome's 
Apology y  especially  in  the  third  book,  written  after  becoming  fully  aware  of  what 
Rufinus  had  published,  gives  vent  to  the  tone  of  contempt  and  anger  which 
Jerome  maintained  towards  his  former  friend  to  the  end  of  his  life.  All  this, 
of  course,  fastened  attention  on  the  less  orthodox  side  of  Origen's  thinking. 


368       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

with  monks  of  the  less  cultured  party  who  ascribed  to  God 
a  material  form,  and  he  seemed  resolute  to  suppress  that 
foolishness.  Yet  he  gradually  became  aware  that  too 
ardent  an  advocacy  of  Origen  might  involve  him  in  trouble. 
Ere  long  something  like  a  monastic  insurrection  against 
Theophilus  was  evoked  by  the  question  about  God's  nature, 
and  vehement  monks  could  easily  stir  up  the  suspicion  and 
wrath  of  the  Christian  populace  of  Alexandria.  Theophilus 
evaded  his  difficulty  by  a  sudden  zeal  against  the  errors  of 
Origen.^  He  condemned  these,  and  he  insisted  that  the 
Nitrian  monks,  including  his  old  friends  and  agents,  should 
concur.  It  was  in  vain  they  pleaded  that  they  did  not 
adopt  Origen's  questionable  tenets,  but  were  entitled,  under 
Origen's  banner,  to  oppose  anthropomorphism.  Theophilus 
proceeded  in  person  to  the  Nitrian  mountain  and  carried 
his  purpose  out  amid  great  tumult  and  violence.  The 
vehemence,  arrogance,  and  self-will  of  the  man,  and  his 
unscrupulousness  when  thoroughly  roused,  were  first  clearly 
revealed  in  these  proceedings.  Yet  he  was  a  person  of 
ability,  not  without  theological  attainments,  and  not  without 
insight  into  the  Christian  ethic,  which  he  violated  so  con- 
spicuously in  some  passages  of  his  life.  It  seems  likely 
that  resentment  on  account  of  opposition  to  some  of  his 
arbitrary  proceedings  was  mingled  with  other  motives  in  the 
mind  of  Theophilus. 

Many  of  the  Nitrian  monks  refused  to  comply  with  the 
commands  of  Theophilus  ;  they  were  driven  into  exile,  and 
appeared  as  fugitives  in  Palestine  and  beyond.  Four  of 
them,  known  in  Church  history  as  the  four  "  long  brethren," 
had  occupied  a  leading  place  in  the  society.  They  had 
been  known  and  trusted  by  Theophilus,  and  one  of  them 
(Isidore)  had  been  his  confidential  agent.  After  some  stay  in 
Palestine  these  monks  took  refuge  at  Constantinople,  hoping 
to  find  countenance  there.  The  Constantinopolitan  Patriarch 
was  John  Chrysostom,  and  he  gave  them  shelter  provisionally, 

*  More  than  once,  in  the  course  of  Christian  history,  Origen,  or  his 
posthumous  reputation,  is  turned  out  like  a  bagged  fox,  to  be  hunted,  when 
it  becomes  expedient  to  divert  the  chase  from  some  other  object. 


313-451]  MINOR   CONTROVERSIES  869 

writing  meanwhile  to  Theophilus  in  their  behalf.  As 
Theophilus  had  excommunicated  them,  John  did  not  mean- 
while receive  them  to  communion.  Soon  after,  however,  the 
imperial  government  was  induced  (but  not  by  Chrysostom) 
to  summon  Theophilus  to  Constantinople  to  explain  his 
conduct.  The  indignant  bishop  of  Alexandria  obeyed  the 
summons;  but  he  did  so  with  a  resolution  to  destroy 
Chrysostom,  and  he  succeeded  in  that  effort.  Chrysostom 
was  deposed  and  banished,  though  not  on  charges  connected 
with  Origen's  tenets.  At  the  same  time,  the  question 
between  Theophilus  and  the  Egyptian  monks  seems  to  have 
been  compromised. 

It  appeared,  therefore,  that  the  most  important  tangible 
result  of  the  whole  controversy  was  the  downfall  of 
Chrysostom,  who  really  had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  But 
undoubtedly  a  deeper  note  of  disapprobation  had  been 
fastened  on  the  writings  and  on  the  name  of  Origen. 
Progress  had  been  made  in  bringing  it  to  pass  that  men 
must  be  ready  to  denounce  Origen  if  they  were  to  have 
credit  for  orthodoxy.  This  marks  the  development  of  that 
peculiar  but  well-known  mood  of  mind,  which  in  the 
interest  of  orthodoxy  demands  that  questions  shall  be 
settled  by  a  cry.  He  who  will  not  join  in  the  cry  is  an 
unsound  man. 

In  this  case,  however,  it  must  be  owned  that  the  censure 
of  Origen  was  not  wholly  undeserved,  though  on  all  accounts 
it  should  have  been  more  justly  and  more  gently  measured. 
Origen's  defenders  were  accustomed  to  speak  much  of 
misrepresentation,  and  of  heretical  interpolation,  as  account- 
ing for  the  charges  against  their  hero.  But  the  main 
articles  of  charge  permanently  pressed  against  him  are 
really  sustained  by  his  authentic  writings.  The  facts  are 
not  doubtful.  Only,  if  Origen's  time  and  circumstances, 
especially  if  his  manner  of  thinking  and  his  undoubted 
services  had  been  duly  weighed,  the  facts  might  have  been 
found  largely  pardonable.  To  make  reasonable  allowances 
on  such  grounds  was  becoming  a  difficult  business  at  the 
end  of  the  fourth  century. 
24 


370       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 


Note 

The  main  points  dwelt  upon  by  those  who  attacked 
Origen  were :  first,  his  tendency  to  spiritualise  the  material 
and  the  concrete ;  second,  his  ideas  about  creation,  about  the 
constitution  of  human  nature,  about  the  eventual  restora- 
tion of  all  spiritual  existences,  and  about  the  resurrection. 
These  are  the  points  chiefly  called  in  question  by  Methodius 
in  the  third  century.  Besides,  the  results  of  his  scheme  as 
regards  the  person  of  Christ  were  questioned,  especially  as  to 
the  human  soul  of  our  Lord  and  its  peculiar  history,  and  as  to 
the  duration  of  His  mediatorial  kingdom.  Lastly,  there  was 
the  kind  of  inequality  between  the  Father  and  the  Son  which 
some  passages  of  his  works  certainly  seemed  to  assert.  But 
on  this  point  more  than  others,  some,  at  least,  of  his  early 
assailants  seem  to  be  conscious  that  another  side  of  his  think- 
ing qualifies  this  one.  They  do  not  know  very  well  what  to 
make  of  it,  and  pass  from  it  with  brief  notice.  And  certainly 
modest  men  might  feel  that  it  was  not  incumbent  on  them 
to  frame  a  charge  against  Origen  on  this  article,  when 
Athanasius  had  refrained  from  doing  so. 


a  PROFESSED  REFORMERS 

Jovinian  and  Vigilantius  have  already  been  referred  to  in 
the  chapter  on  Monasticism.  Aerius  ^  is  said  to  have  been  a 
friend  of  Eustathius  of  Sebasteia  (in  Pontus),  and  was  still 
alive  about  A.D.  375.  After  Eustathius  was  promoted  to  the 
bishopric,  Aerius  is  said  to  have  founded  a  sect  which  re- 
nounced worldly  possessions.  They  were  severely  treated,  and 
excluded  from  social  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  fellowship.  The 
doctrines  ascribed  to  him  are — (1)  assertion  of  equality  of 
presbyters  and  bishops ;  (2)  rejection  of  festival  of  Easter  as 
Jewish ;  (3)  prayers  for  the  dead  were  useless  and  injurious ; 
(4)  fasting  should  be  regulated  by  the  soul's  inward  condition, 
not  by  set  times.  As  the  attitude  of  Eustathius  in  the  Arian 
controversy  was  extremely  variable,  it  is  very  possible  that 
his  early  friend  might  share  the  uncertainty  on  that  great 
controversy  which  characterised  many  portions  of  the  Eastern 
Clburch. 

1  Epiphanius,  Panarium  Hcer.  75,  is  the  only  authority. 


313-451]  MINOR   CONTROVERSIES  371 


D.    PRISCILLIANISTS 

Sjn.  Caesar- August.,  Hefele,  Goncilien,  ii.  Sulp.  Severus,  Chronkon^  ii. 
46-51  ;  Dial.  iii.  11.  Prise.  Quos  supersunt,  Schepps,  Vindob.  1889 
(with  Orosii  Commonitorium  de  errore,  etc.).  Schepps,  Priscillianus, 
Wurzburg,  1886.    Loofs,  T.  L.  Z.,  1886. 

Priscillian  was  an  earnest  Spanish  layman,  whose  real 
views  it  is  not  easy  to  make  out,  and  the  recent  discovery  of 
a  lost  treatise  of  his  does  not  illuminate  the  situation  very 
much.  It  is  obvious  that  he  found  the  church  around  him 
to  be  in  a  relaxed  condition,  and  some  of  the  bishops  corrupt 
men.  On  the  other  side,  his  own  piety,  which  was  uncom- 
promising, seems  to  have  connected  itseK  with  fanciful 
speculations*  He  ascribed  a  measure  of  inspiration  to 
various  writings  outside  of  the  Canon  which  attracted  or 
impressed  him.  And  as  his  earnestness  applied  itself 
especially  to  the  ascetic  side  of  Christianity,  so  it  found 
support,  apparently,  in  gnostic  or  semi-gnostic  conceptions 
of  the  origin  of  souls,  and  of  the  evil  powers  with  which 
they  have  to  contend :  the  souls  of  men  originate  with 
God,  and  have  strange  conflicts  to  go  through  before  they 
reach  the  earth. 

Priscillian  was  a  man  of  good  family  and  of  culture,  and 
evidently  could  powerfully  impress  others.  He  drew  people 
about  him  as  a  religious  leader,  and  the  circle  included  some 
bishops.  The  trouble  began  with  the  imputation  of  sectarian 
courses,  the  members  of  the  party  withdrawing  more  or  less 
from  ordinary  church  meetings,  setting  up  conventicles,  and 
practising  asceticism  to  unusual  degrees.  The  synod  of 
Saragossa  (a.d.  380)  emitted  canons  believed  to  have  been 
directed  against  Priscillian  (though  he  is  not  named),  and 
the  features  just  mentioned  are  those  against  which  the 
canons  are  levelled.  It  is  also  said  that  this  synod  excom- 
municated Priscillian  and  his  friends  without  giving  them  a 
hearing. 

We  know  from  orthodox  sources  that  some  of  the 
bishops  opposed  to  Priscillian  were  believed  to  be  very  bad 
men.     It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  those  who  believed  his 


372       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

influence  to  be  good  should  rally  to  him.  He  continued  to 
find  support,  and  is  said  to  have  been  himself  consecrated  to 
the  bishopric  of  Avila. 

He  was  now  accused  of  magic  and  Manicheism,  and  an 
edict,  decreeing  his  banishment  from  Spain  along  with  his 
chief  supporters,  was  procured  from  the  civil  authorities. 
Priscillian,  with  some  adherents,  made  a  journey  into  Italy 
to  plead  his  own  cause  at  headquarters.  Ecclesiastical  men 
like  Damasus  of  Kome  and  Ambrose  of  Milan  declined  to 
show  him  favour,  but  the  Emperor  Gratian  reversed  the 
decree  of  banishment.  Priscillian  could  now  return  to 
Spain,  and  his  chief  enemy,  Ithacius,  bishop  of  Emerita,  was 
obliged  to  leave,  convicted  of  unworthy  conduct.  Just  at 
this  time,  however,  the  usurper  Maximus  established  him- 
self in  Gaul,  and  Ithacius  was  able  to  persuade  him  and  his 
advisers  to  bring  Priscillian  and  his  friends  to  trial  at 
Bordeaux.  Priscillian,  after  torture,  was  put  to  death. 
This  hitherto  unheard-of  procedure  was  at  once  and  strongly 
denounced.  Siricius  of  Eome,  Ambrose  of  Milan,  Martin  of 
Tours,  all  took  the  same  view.  The  two  latter  refused  to 
hold  communion  with  the  bishops  concerned  in  it, — Martin 
at  last  making  some  concessions  in  order  to  obtain,  in  return, 
a  cessation  of  persecution  for  the  Spanish  Priscillianists. 
The  two  bishops  chiefly  responsible  for  the  enormity  had 
to  leave  their  sees. 

Priscillian  professed  adherence  to  the  common  creed 
(Apostles') ;  but  his  ardent  celebration  of  "  the  one  God, 
Christ,"  is  capable  of  a  modalistic  interpretation.  And,  as 
has  been  said,  a  gnostic  tinge  characterised  his  thinking. 
He  is  to  be  regarded  as  in  sympathy  with  the  piety  of  his 
time,  and  earnest  in  it,  but  disposed  to  speculations  which 
were  felt  to  be  questionable. 

The  whole  case  reveals  to  us  the  existence  (not  universal 
but  general)  of  a  worldly-minded  clergy  in  his  part  of  Spain, 
and  also  ascetic  earnestness  asserting  itself  against  this.  It 
reminds  us  also  that  as  the  Manicheans  held  their  ground 
mainly  by  the  fame  of  their  self-denial,  any  asceticism  that 
seemed    exclusive    or    eccentric    could    be    brought    under 


313-451]  MINOR   CONTROVERSIES  373 

suspicion  of  Manicheism.  Finally,  it  reveals  the  Christian 
recoil  from  death-punishments  on  alleged  heretics,  which 
still  happily  prevailed  in  the  Church. 

The  Priscillianists  lingered  on  in  Spain  as  a  sect  for  a 
couple  of  centuries. 


CHAPTEK    XXIIl 

Discussions  kegakding  the  Person  of  Christ 

The  theology  of  the  Church  was  now  to  proceed  on  the  fixed 
assumption  that  our  Lord,  in  His  higher  nature,  is  consub- 
stantial  with  the  Father.^  This  was  the  common  ground. 
Yet  in  working  out  this  assumption  through  the  processes 
of  thought,  speech,  and  worship,  divergences  could  arise. 
Here,  in  Christ,  are  two — God  and  Man ;  and  these  two  in 
Him  are  One ;  but  how  two,  and  how  One  ?  The  differences 
at  this  point  slowly  came  to  light ;  and  so  the  Christological 
controversies  set  in,  which  were  to  absorb  theologians  during 
many  generations. 

The  tendency  which  at  first  preponderated,  proceeded 
naturally  from  the  great  victory  over  Arianism.  Christ 
being  owned  as  first,  and  from  eternity,  true  God,  then, 
whatever  He  became  as  man,  the  vitality  of  Godhead  is 
thought  of  as  penetrating  everything.  This  tendency 
culminated  in  the  Monophysite  heresy.  Along  with  this, 
however,  enough  came  over  from  the  theological  past,  and 
enough  was  present  in  the  Gospels,  to  maintain  a  conscious- 
ness of  the  reality  of  the  human  nature  of  the  Lord.  And 
a  school  arose  which  was  to  claim  special  attention  for  the 
distinctive  life  of  the  humanity  of  Christ.  In  doing  so  it 
was  to  incur  the  charge  of  ascribing  to  the  humanity  a 
separate  self,  and  was  denounced  as  Nestorianism.  This 
tendency  found  its  home  at  Antioch ;  the  opposition  to  it 

*  The  Arianism  of  the  Gothic  and  Teutonic  races  continued  :  it  enveloped 
the  empire  and  penetrated  it ;  but  it  ceased  to  operate  on  the  Church  of  th9 
empire  as  a  domestic  influence. 

874 


A.D.  313-451]      REGARDING   THE   PERSON   OF   CHRIST         375 

centred  at  Alexandria;  and  the  ecclesiastical  rivalry  of  the 
great  sees  mingled  with  the  theological  interests  which  were 
felt  to  be  at  stake. 

Antioch,  the  capital  of  Syria,  had  long  been  a  seat  of 
intellectual  life.  Its  Christian  history  was  associated, 
through  Paul  {ante,  p.  213),  and  also  through  Lucian  {ante, 
p.  325),  with  debates,  which  at  least  implied  active  thought, 
and  also  stimulated  it.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  Nicene 
teaching  had  finally  triumphed ;  and  no  ground  exists  for 
impeaching  the  sincerity  with  which  the  school  of  Antioch 
adhered  to  it.  During  the  later  stages  of  the  Arian  debate 
Diodorus  stood  at  the  head  of  the  school;  and  Theodorus 
of  Mopsuestia,  Chrysostom  of  Constantinople,  Theodoret  of 
Cyrus,  were  among  its  distinguished  representatives. 

Theodorus  was  the  most  famous  theologian  of  the  East ; 
and  he  preserved  to  the  end  of  his  life  the  respect  and 
admiration  of  his  brethren.  After  his  death  his  memory 
was  assailed,  and  he  was  denounced  as  the  true  father  of 
Nestorianism.  At  all  events  he,  chiefly,  developed  ideas 
with  which  Nestorianism  has  a  natural  affinity. 

If  Theodorus  is  truly  represented,  his  teaching  ran  on 
these  lines :  Man  has  been  appointed  to  be  the  centre  of 
the  created  universe  and  the  turning-point  of  its  destinies. 
When  man  fell,  the  creation  fell  with  him :  but  in  Christ, 
the  second  Adam,  it  is  restored.  Throughout  this  history, 
the  part  which  man  plays  must  be  the  result  of  his  own 
free  decision.  By  such  a  decision  man  fell :  by  a  decision 
as  truly  free,  human,  independent,  the  restoration  must  be 
effected.  In  Jesus  this  takes  place:  and  it  must  come  to 
pass  (apparently)  in  a  way  more  independent  and  more 
simply  human  than  it  could  be,  if  Jesus  were  from  the  first 
identically  and  simply  the  Eternal  Son  of  God.  That  would 
supersede  the  human  choice.  Eather  we  should  think  that 
the  great  decision  comes  to  pass  by  Jesus,  as  man,  affirming 
his  own  adherence,  and  his  union,  to  the  Son  of  God. 
Through  such  a  decision  he  passes  into  that  complete  union 
in  which  a  final  and  indestructible  harmony  is  attained. 
Here  ideas  and  connections  of  thought  were  presented  which 


376       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d 

remind  one,  in  different  ways,  of  Origen  and  of  Paul  of 
Samosati.  It  would  seem  that  Theodorus  conceived  himself 
able  to  assert  a  certain  union  of  the  two  natures  from  the 
first ;  but  not,  from  the  first,  the  consummate  and  final  union. 
It  does  not  appear  that  this  way  of  construing  the  person 
of  Christ  is  to  be  imputed  to  any  other  member  of  the 
school  of  Antioch :  but  it  could  hardly  have  been  developed 
without  contradiction,  except  in  a  school  to  which  it  was 
congenial  to  emphasise  the  significance  of  our  Lord's  human 
nature,  and  the  worth  for  our  redemption  of  his  human 
conflict  and  victory.^ 

Besides  what  has  now  been  said  of  the  school  of  Antioch, 
we  may  add  that  it  was  ethical  rather  than  mystical.  Also 
it  was  capable  of  developing  a  rigorously  rationalistic  tend- 
ency;  but  as  regards  the  representative  men,  this  possi- 
bility was  powerfully  restrained  by  their  sincere  participation 
in  the  faith  of  the  great  articles  of  the  creed. 

It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  special  interest  was  felt  by 
the  theologians  of  Antioch  in  our  Lord's  human  nature, 
and  in  the  conflict  and  victory  achieved  in  it.  Here  they 
found  thoughts  of  our  Lord  as  our  Example,  our  Leader, 
our  Eepresentative,  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation,  the  Second 
Adam,  which  they  valued  as  authentic  and  instructive.  In 
the  interest  of  this  mode  of  contemplation  they  were  natur- 
ally disposed  to  claim  as  much  room  as  possible  for  the 
human  development,  the  human  exercise,  and  the  human 
decision  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  This  was  a  perfectly  valid 
tendency,  and  necessary  to  the  completeness  of  Christian 
theology.  Effect  could  be  given  to  it  in  an  extreme  and 
one-sided  way.  The  counter  tendency,  characteristic  of 
Alexandria,  will  be  described  later. 


A.    CASE    OF   NESTORIUS 

It  had  not  yet  appeared   that   these  tendencies,  Anti- 
ochian    and    Alexandrian,   existed    in    a   form    that    would 

*  There  is  a  careful  article  on  Theodorus  by  Dr.  Swete  in  the  Didionary 
of  Christian  Biography,  and  one  in  Beal-Encycl.  by  W.  Mbller. 


313-451]  REGARDING   THE   PERSON   OF   CHRIST  377 

endanger  the  peace  of  the  Church,  when,  in  428,  the  see 
of  Constantinople  became  vacant  by  the  death  of  Sisinius. 
At  his  election,  two  years  before,  factions  had  harassed 
that  church :  at  his  death  these  were  immediately  renewed ; 
and  as  no  local  candidate  could  be  elected  harmoniously, 
the  emperor  decided  to  summon  Nestorius  from  Antioch. 
He  had  lived  an  ascetic  life,  had  become  a  presbyter,  and 
had  established  a  great  reputation  as  an  eloquent  preacher. 
He  was,  if  possible,  a  little  too  conscious  of  the  sincerity 
of  his  motives;  and  his  whole  procedure  shows  that  he 
had  not  dreamed  of  his  orthodoxy  being  questioned.  He 
came  to  Constantinople  to  set  people  right  in  doctrine  and 
practice,  so  far  as  that  might  prove  to  be  required.  He 
therefore  immediately  attacked  various  heresies  —  Arian, 
Novatian,  Macedonian,  Quartodeciman — with  great  vehe- 
mence. His  ambition  was  to  "  purge  the  earth  of  heretics." 
At  Constantinople  the  phrase  deoTOKo^i,  mother  of  God, 
as  applied  to  the  Virgin,  attracted  the  attention  of  Nestorius. 
At  Antioch  probably  it  had  not  been  so  current ;  or  if  it 
had,  Nestorius  had  noted  it  with  disapprobation  and  made 
up  his  mind  to  discourage  it.  For  him  it  was  an  erroneous 
phrase,  suggesting  that  the  divine  nature  could  have  a  human 
mother.  A  presbyter,  Anastasius,  who  came  with  Nestorius 
from  Antioch,  preached  against  the  use  of  the  word,  ascrib- 
ing to  it,  seemingly,  an  Apollinarian  sense;  and  when 
this  created  sensation  and  debate,  Nestorius  himself  preached 
to  the  same  effect.  There  was,  no  doubt,  enough  of  factious 
and  disappointed  party  spirit  at  Constantinople  to  lay  eager 
hold  of  the  occasion  thus  afforded  for  assailing  the  bishop. 
But  in  any  case  he  could  hardly  have  escaped  a  storm; 
for  the  phrase  which  he  attacked  had  become  one  of 
the  forms  of  speech  in  which  men  held  fast  the  wonder 
of  the  Incarnation; — He  who  was  from  everlasting  God  of 
God,  became  in  time  the  Son  of  a  human  mother.^     The 

*  The  famUiar  use  of  the  phrase  as  a  designation  of  the  Virgin  must  have 
been  recent.  It  is  certainly  rare  in  Athanasius,  and  one  cannot,  I  think,  be 
very  confident  of  the  text  in  all  the  cases  in  which  it  does  occur.  But  all 
Nicene  men  held,  of  course,  that  He  who  was  born  of  the  Virgin  was  the 


378       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

term  has  no  Biblical  authority,  and  is  one  of  those  expres- 
sions of  which  the  startling  effect  depends  on  imputing 
to  the  Person,  denominated  only  from  His  divine  nature, 
things  that  are  true  of  Him  in  respect  of  His  human 
nature,  while  yet  all  mention  of  the  latter  nature  is  sup- 
pressed. It  is  fitted,  therefore,  to  suggest  more  than  any 
serious  supporter  of  the  phrase  intends  it  to  mean.  And 
when  used,  not  in  connection  with  explanations  of  the 
Incarnation,  but  as  the  brief  denomination  of  the  blessed 
Virgin,  it  lends  itself  to  ideas  about  her  to  which  the 
New  Testament  gives  no  countenance.  It  stood  connected, 
however,  with  the  enthusiastic  assertion  of  the  wonder  of 
the  Incarnation,  and  it  embodied  in  itself  the  tendency, 
already  setting  in,  to  magnify  and  extol  the  Virgin.  On 
these  grounds  it  required  to  be  handled  with  far  more 
care  and  discrimination  than  appeared  in  the  action  of 
Nestorius. 

Anastasius  and  Nestorius  had  attacked  the  phrase  mainly 
as  expressing  the  objectionable  idea,  that  the  divine  Nature 
could  be  brought  forth  by  a  woman.  They  did  not  appre- 
hend danger  in  standing  strongly  on  this  ground,  because 
they  felt  that  the  only  accurate  statement  of  the  Virgin's 
position  was  to  say  that  she  was  honoured,  in  the  order 
of  providence,  to  contribute  as  a  mother  the  human  element 
by  which  the  Incarnation  came  to  pass.  Still  He  who 
through  the  human  nature  became  her  son,  was  the  Son 
of  God.  The  "  deoroKo^ "  was  valued  as  bringing  out 
vividly  that  thought.  Nestorius  and  his  friend  could  be 
accused  of  trying  to  explain  away  the  thought,  and  so, 
in  that  interest,  trying  to  suppress  the  word. 

We  do  not  possess  the  sermons  in  which  Nestorius 
embodied  his  position,  but  great  debate  arose  at  Constan- 
tinople, and  news  of  the  debate  were  forwarded  to  other 
ecclesiastical   centres,   especially   to   Alexandria.       Here   a 

Eternal  Word  and  Son.  I  have  not  found  the  word  in  Basil.  It  occurs  once 
or  twice  in  Gregory  Nazianzus, — and  not  so  as  to  suggest  that  the  usage  is 
novel.  It  had  been  occasionally  used  bj  theologians  of  various  schools,  during 
a  considerable  time. 


313-451]         REGARDING   THE    PERSON    OF    CHRIST  379 

lively  senscation  was  awakened,  and  Cyril,  the  archbishop, 
thought  it  his  duty  to  preach  a  course  of  sermons,  addressed 
chiefly  to  the  clergy  and  monks,  in  which  he  vigorously 
defended  the  use  of  the  phrase  OeoroKo^i  and  the  mode 
of  view  it  was  intended  to  express.  In  order  further  to 
strengthen  his  position,  Cyril  communicated  with  the  great 
Patriarch  of  the  West,  Ccelestinus  of  Eome,  forwarding 
also  copies  of  his  sermons.  Ccelestinus  played  a  waiting 
game :  he  kept  silence  for  months,  pleading  that  the 
documents  must  be  translated  into  Latin  before  a  satis- 
factory judgment  on  them  could  be  given. 

Alexandria  had  already  earned  the  character  of  an 
aspiring  and  enterprising  see.  Distinguished  men  had 
occupied  it, — recently  Athanasius.  Something  in  the  con- 
stitution and  circumstances  of  the  Egyptian  church  seems 
to  have  easily  suggested  strong  measures  to  the  great 
prince-bishop  at  its  head.  Perhaps  more  than  any  other 
Patriarch,  the  Alexandrian  bishop  had  behind  him  a  great 
mass  of  religious  life  at  high  pressure ;  and  that  was  force, 
or  could  be  converted  into  force.  At  all  events  Alexandria 
was  older  and  as  yet  more  famous  than  Constantinople, 
and  saw  with  jealous  eyes  the  precedency  which  almost 
inevitably  accrued  to  the  bishop  of  the  imperial  city. 
Theophilus,  the  predecessor  and  uncle  of  Cyril,  had  gained 
a  memorable  victory  for  Alexandria  over  Constantinople 
when  he  drove  Chrysostom  into  exile.  To  humiliate  and 
trample  on  Nestorius  might  seem  a  not  undesirable  sequel. 

At  the  same  time  the  part  which  Alexandria  and  its 
bishop  took  in  the  contest  cannot  be  ascribed  merely  to 
ecclesiastical  motives :  the  Alexandrian  school  of  religious 
thought  differed  really  from  that  of  Antioch.  Here  we 
must  find  the  reason  and  motive  of  Cyril's  antagonism 
to  Nestorius,  which  the  Church  approved  as  orthodox; 
and  also  of  the  whole  monophysite  development,  which, 
a  little  later,  the  Church  condemned. 

This  tendency  could  appeal  to  the  usage  of  speech 
with  orthodox  writers  before  the  controversies  of  the  fifth 
century  began.     Those  writers,  affirming  the  true  Godhead 


380       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

and  the  true  manhood  of  Christ,  loved  to  present  Him  as 
a  marvellous  unity:  of  Him  might  be  predicated  what 
belongs  to  Godhead  and  what  belongs  to  manhood;  both 
being  referred  to  the  same  identical  subject,  however  incom- 
patible they  might  seem — e.g.,  that  He  was  begotten  from 
Eternity  and  begotten  in  time,  that  He  was  invisible,  yet 
seen  and  handled,  that  He  was  the  Lord  of  Life,  yet  dead 
and  buried.  Their  wish  was  to  express  forcibly  the  perfect 
and  abiding  union  in  Christ  of  all  that  makes  Him  capable 
of  being  thus  spoken  of.  So  it  should  be  felt  that  He, 
He  himself,  really  became  man.  The  strength  of  feeling 
on  this  subject  led  the  monophysites,  who  represent  the 
extreme  of  the  Alexandrian  tendency,  to  assert,  finally,  that 
after  the  Incarnation  we  are  to  own  only  one  nature,  the 
fjbia  (j)u<TL<i  of  the  Incarnate  One. 

With  these  habitual  modes  of  view  a  mystic  devoutness 
was  associated.  It  might  partake  largely  of  the  nature 
of  Christian  piety :  largely,  also,  it  might  be  due  to  the 
way  in  which  the  imagination  was  stimulated  by  para- 
doxical combinations  of  ideas  in  regard  to  the  Person  of 
Christ. 

These  tendencies  prevailed  in  the  Alexandrian  Christi- 
anity at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century.  They  found 
their  extreme  development,  as  we  have  said,  in  the  utterance 
and  action  of  the  declared  monophysites.  Effect  was  given 
to  them  meanwhile,  in  a  more  considerate  way,  by  the 
great  bishop  Cyril.  He  had  already  occupied  the  see  for 
sixteen  years.  He  was  a  man  of  exceptional  force  of 
character,  and  prone  to  resolute,  even  passionate,  self-asser- 
tion. At  the  same  time  he  was  a  theological  thinker  of 
great  power,  and  undoubtedly  he  felt  the  religious  value 
as  well  as  the  intellectual  or  systematic  importance  of  the 
doctrines  which  he  maintained. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  Cyril  preached  at  Alexandria 
upon  the  questions  raised  at  Constantinople,  and  that  he 
spoke  plainly  on  the  theology  which  seemed  to  him  to 
underlie  the  withholding  from  the  Virgin  of  the  title  0€ot6ko^. 
Letters  passed  between  him  and  Nestorius,  and  Cyril  wrote 


313-451]  REGARDING   TflE    PERSON    OF    CHRIST  381 

besides  to  the  bishop  of  Eome,  desiring  his  support  in  the 
debate  which  was  arising,  but  professing  to  leave  very  much 
in  his  hands  the  question  of  further  steps.  The  Pope  ap- 
proved of  Cyril's  view,  and  entrusted  him  with  letters  in 
that  sense  directed  to  various  parties  in  the  East.  One  of 
these  was  addressed,  in  very  harsh  terms,  to  Nestorius  him- 
seK.  It  required  him,  on  pain  of  exclusion  from  church- 
fellowship,  to  recant  within  ten  days  of  receiving  the  letter. 
These  letters  of  Coelestinus  are  very  discreditable  to  him  on 
this  account,  that  they  contain  no  statement  of  the  grounds 
on  which  he  proceeds.  Nestorius  is  denounced  as  a  heretic ; 
Cyril  is  commended  as  orthodox ;  Nestorius  is  called  upon 
to  recant;  but  all  is  couched  in  vague  generalities  which 
leave  undefined  the  doctrine  (as  yet  defined  by  no  coimcil) 
which  the  Eoman  bishop  professes  to  be  so  anxious  to 
support. 

About  the  same  time  John,  bishop  of  Antioch,  comes 
upon  the  scene.  His  promotion  at  Antioch  had  been  nearly 
contemporary  with  that  of  Nestorius  at  Constantinople. 
Letters  which  he  received  from  the  bishop  of  Eome  con- 
vinced him  that  a  serious  storm  was  gathering,  and  he  could 
have  little  doubt  that  Egypt,  Macedonia,  and  large  districts 
in  Asia  would  repudiate  the  position  Nestorius  had  taken 
up.  He  wrote,  therefore,  a  very  friendly  remonstrance  to 
Nestorius,  advising  him  to  give  up  the  question  about  the 
word  OeoTOKo^;,  since  it  was  capable  of  reasonable  explana- 
tion, and  was  endeared  to  men  by  usage.  In  this  way  the 
cause  of  offence  would  be  removed.  John  shared  the  point 
of  view  common  to  the  Antiochian  school,  and  therefore 
might  hope  to  have  the  more  influence  with  Nestorius.  But 
the  latter  declined  to  comply;  he  owned  that  OeoroKo^  was 
not  quite  incapable  of  being  taken  in  an  inoffensive  sense, 
but  he  reckoned  it  dangerous  and  misleading.  He  was  in- 
clined, as  a  compromise,  to  offer  the  word  Xpl<ttot6ko<;. 

In  the  meantime  Cyril,  who  could  act  not  only  for 
himself,  but  was  now  also  empowered  to  represent  the  bishop 
of  Eome,  and  to  transmit  to  Nestorius  the  epistle  of  the 
latter,  thought  fit  to  prepare  the  way  by  convoking  a  synod 


382       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

of  his  own  clergy  at  Alexandria.  This  synod  sanctioned  a 
severe  letter  to  Nestorius,  in  which  they  call  upon  him  to 
concur  in  the  doctrine  they  set  forth.  In  this  statement 
they  reject  various  phrases  used  by  Nestorius  or  imputed  -to 
him,  partly  as  insufficient  to  express  the  unity  of  the  person 
of  Christ,  partly  as  tending  actually  to  suggest  the  idea  of 
two  persons,  a  human  and  a  divine  one,  closely  conjoined 
but  still  remaining  separate.  To  this  synodical  letter  were 
attached  twelve  anathematismi — so  many  propositions,  each 
branded  with  anathema.  Cyril  had  prepared  these,  and  they 
became  famous.  Nestorius  was  called  upon  himself  to 
anathematise  the  same  propositions.  These  anathematismi 
were  met  by  Nestorius  with  twelve  counter  anathematismi, 
in  which  he  strove  to  turn  the  imputation  of  heresy  against 
Cyril.  The  Alexandrian  declarations  were  sent  also  to  John 
of  Antioch.  He  evidently  regarded  them  as  involving  some 
positions  that  were  erroneous,  and  as  embodying  an  attack 
not  only  upon  Nestorius,  but  upon  the  theology  of  the  school 
of  Antioch ;  accordingly,  he  engaged  Theodoret  to  furnish  a 
reply.^  In  Cyril's  anathematismi  some  statements  occur 
which  his  admirers  have  had  to  explain  away.^  Hence, 
though  the  defenders  of  the  Church's  doctrine  have  always 
been  exceedingly  chary  of  taking  exception  in  any  case  to 
Cyril's  teaching,  this  (third)  letter  to  Nestorius,  with  the 
appended  anathematismi,  has  never  been  clothed  with  the 
same  authority,  as  a   standard  of   orthodoxy,  as  has  been 

^  Cyril  had  accompanied  each  anathematismus  with  an  exposition  (iirlXva-is). 
Theodoret  responded  to  each  in  an  dvarpoiri^,  and  Cyril  finally  replied  in  an 
dwoXoyia.  The  three  manifestoes — the  anathematismi,  the  criticism  of  Theo- 
doret, and  the  apology  of  Cyril — are  printed  together  in  vol.  v.  of  the  Halle 
edition  of  Theodoret's  works,  and  they  present  a  good  view  of  the  controversy 
as  then  stated, — the  interests  which  each  side  wished  to  guard,  and  the  lia- 
bilities to  suspicion  and  misunderstanding  which  operated.  Andreas  of 
Saraosata  also  wrote  a  book  against  Cyril,  to  which  the  latter  replied  in  an 
Apologeticus  adversus  Orientales. 

Besides  Mansi,  iv.  and  v.,  Fuchs,  Bihliothek  d.  Kirchenversammlungen,  iii. 
p.  477  fol.,  see  good  statement  in  Hefele,  Conciliengesehichte,  ii.  p.  127  fol.  ; 
Bright  in  Did,  Christ,  Biogr,,  art.  **  Cyril,"  p.  766;  Tillemont,  M&moires, 
xiv.  pp.  358,  360. 

-  Partioidarly  in  the  third,  where  he  asserts  a  tvuffii  <pv<riic^. 


313-451]         REGARDING   THE   PERSON   OF   CHRIST  383 

ascribed  to  some  of  his  other  writings.  Theodoret,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  his  criticism  of  Cyril,  has  been  accused  of 
leaning  unduly  in  the  Nestorian  direction,  especially  in  his 
treatment  of  the  fourth  anathematismus.  But  he  obliged 
Cyril,  in  reply,  to  explain  himself  more  carefully  on  some 
points.  More  particularly,  Cyril  explained  that  he  used 
certain  language  only  against  the  pronounced  Nestorianism 
which  he  alleged  to  be  his  opponent's  real  doctrine. 

As  to  the  real  position  of  Nestorius,  it  is  obvious  that 
if  he  was  to  vary  from  what  has  proved  to  be  the  Church's 
teaching  about  the  person  of  Christ,  he  was  in  danger  of 
doing  so  rather  in  the  way  of  dividing  the  Person,  than  of 
confusing  the  natures.  But  how  far  he  did  vary  is  obscure. 
It  is  plain  that  Nestorius  ^  maintained  the  doctrine  of  two 
natures  and  the  integrity  of  each ;  that  he  sincerely  rejected 
Arianism  and  ApoUtnarianism ;  that  he  refused  to  admit  that 
Deity  in  itself  could  be  born  or  could  suffer ;  that  the  phrase 
OeoTOKo^  was  rejected  by  him  on  this,  as  the  main  expressed 
ground,  that  according  to  its  proper  meaning  it  implied 
Deity  in  itself  to  have  been  born  of  Mary  and  to  have 
taken  origin  from  her  (which  would  be  not  so  much  heretical 
as  monstrous) ;  also  he  admitted  that  in  a  certain  sense,  and 
with  explanations,  he  could  allow  the  term  deoroKo^  itself. 
All  these  were  orthodox  positions.  On  the  other  side,  it  is 
true  that  he  shrank  from  the  language  which,  on  the  ground 
of  the  unity  of  the  Person,  who  is  both  God  and  man,  applies 
to  the  person  identified  by  the  one  nature  descriptions  which 
are  literally  and  immediately  true  only  by  reason  of  the 
other  nature.*  He  shrank  from  this,  because  he  thought  it 
a  practice  which  led  to  misapprehension;  probably  also, 
though  on  this  he  was  less  explicit,  because  he  thought  it 
tended  to  attenuate  the  significance,  and  the  peculiar  dis- 
cipline, of  the  human  nature  in  Christ.  And  yet  it  is  not 
obvious  that  he  would  have  shrunk  so  much  from  the 
language  if  applied  only  to  the  Saviour  Himself  (e.g.  Before 

^  See  Hefele,  Conciliengesch.  ii.  p.  140,  who  is  here  followed. 
2  This  usage  is  called  the  communicatio  idiomatum  by  Catholics,  and  by 
the  Reformed :  the  Lutheran  c  <.  is  differently  explained. 


384       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

Abraham  was  Jesus  is) ;  but  he  felt  it  to  be  going  beyond 
bounds  when  a  mere  human  being,  the  Virgin  Mary,  began 
to  be  characterised  habitually  as  related  to  God  (without 
further  discrimination)  as,  in  virtue  of  His  humanity,  she 
was  related  to  Jesus  Christ. 

In  comparing  the  early  statements  of  Cyril  on  the  one 
hand  and  of  Nestorius  and  Theodoret^  on  the  other,  one 
sees  that  on  the  latter  side  there  is  more  anxiety  to  preserve 
the  manhood  distinctly  before  the  mind,  and  to  hold  apart, 
in  thought  and  speech,  what  belonged  to  the  manhood  and 
what  belonged  to  the  Godhead.  The  Virgin,  e.g.,  was  directly 
and  immediately  related  to  the  manhood,  she  was  the  mother 
of  the  manhood  or  of  the  man ;  only  then,  because  the  man 
is  one  with  the  Son  of  God,  one  owns  that  this  comes  to 
mean  that  she  is  the  mother  of  the  Lord.  Cyril,  on  the 
other  hand,  owns  that  it  is  through  the  manhood  the  Son 
of  God  holds  special  relation  to  the  Virgin;  and  he  says 
that  if  there  were  the  smallest  danger  of  anyone  supposing 
that  the  divine  nature  derived  origin  or  being  from  the 
Virgin,  it  might  be  right  rather  to  say  avOpwiroroKo^.  But 
Cyril's  mind  is  held,  not  by  the  nature  which  takes  relation 
to  the  Virgin,  but  by  the  Person  who  in  that  nature  does 
so.  Cyril  brings  out  the  unity  of  Christ  by  the  assertion 
of  one  <^ucri9,  and  Theodoret  brings  out  the  twofoldness  of 
the  Godhead  and  the  manhood  by  the  assertion  of  two 
i/TToo-Tacret?.  Both  phrases  are  objectionable  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  phraseology  ultimately  settled ;  both  are 
pardonable  at  the  stage  then  reached ;  and  they  indicate, 
when  compared,  a  divergent  tendency  ; — but  not  necessarily 
so  divergent,  on  a  fair  construction,  as  to  exclude  the 
doctrine,  ultimately  accepted,  that  the  divine  Person 
assumed  the  human  nature, — the  Person  continuing  to  be 
one,  in  the  two  natures. 

This  is  the  orthodox  phrase,  and  it  is  easy  to  waive 
difficulties  by  means  of  it ;  but  anyone  who  thinks,  becomes 
aware  that  personality  is  an  idea  full  of  mystery,  and  there- 

^  But  Theodoret  differed  from  Nestorius  in  admitting  from  the  first  the 
disputed  phrase  deor^Kos. 


3ia^5l]         REGARDING   THE    PERSON   OF   CHRIST  385 

fore  of  difficulty.^  And  perhaps  we  may  best  represent  to 
ourselves  the  relation  of  minds  at  that  time  by  saying  that 
Nestorius  and  Theodoret  thought  of  each  nature,  the  human 
for  instance,  as  continuing  to  have  attached  to  it,  if  it  is  to 
continue  to  exist  in  its  integrity,  a  certain  shadow  of 
personality,  a  spiritual  identity  of  its  own ;  but  Cyril  shrank 
from  the  thought,  because  to  his  mind  it  threatened  to 
bring  in  two  persons,  and  so  to  annul  the  wonder  and  the 
grace  of  the  Incarnation.  There  is  no  evidence,  however, 
that  Nestorius  held  a  doctrine  of  two  persons  after  the 
Incarnation ;  though  in  dealing  with  the  difficulties  of  the 
subject  he  is  more  anxious  than  Cyril  to  emphasise  the 
sphere  of  relation  proper  to  each  nature.  The  question  of 
his  precise  view  is  by  no  means  so  important  as  in  the  case 
of  Cyril,  for  Nestorius,  as  a  theologian,  is  not  nearly  of  equal 
rank.  Nestorius  is  best  understood  as  guarding  against 
Apollinarianism ;  for  that  doctrine  abridged  the  human 
nature  in  order  more  completely  to  make  out  the  union  of 
it  with  the  divine.  His  misfortune  was  to  have  incurred 
boundless  suspicion  and  dislike,  by  attacking  a  phrase 
which  had  acquired  so  many  theological  and  devotional 
associations.^ 

Nestorius  himself  had  suggested  to  the  emperor  that 
a  general  council  might  assuage  the  trouble  which  had 
arisen ;  and  in  replying  to  John  of  Antioch's  remon- 
strance he  had  expressed  his  expectation  that  if  a  council 
met,  the  difficulties  would  disappear.  Similar  sugges- 
tions had  reached  the  emperor  from  some  of  Nestorius' 
opponents.  Accordingly,  on  19th  November  430,  Theo- 
dosius  II.,  in  his  own  name  and  in  that  of  his  Western 
colleague    Valentinian,    issued    a    summons    for    a    council, 

^  "Person"  explains  itself  to  us  by  the  personal  pronouns  ;  but  it  is  not 
capable  of  dialectical  limitation  so  as  to  afford  means  for  defining  the  real 
manner  of  existence  of  that  which  the  term  denotes. 

^  The  counter  anathemas  of  Nestorius  may  be  seen  in  Hefele,  vol.  ii., 
Fuchs,  vol.  iii.  All  that  Hefele  has  to  say  of  them  is  that  they  tilt  at  wind- 
mills, in  so  far  as  Nestorius  imputes  to  Cyril  opinions  which  were  not  his,  and 
that  the  heretical  views  of  Nestorius  himself  here  and  there  "durchschim- 
meru." 

25 


386       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

to  meet  at  Epbesus  on  Pentecost  of  the  following 
year> 

The  story  of  the  general  council  of  Ephesus  (a.d.  431) 
is  interesting  in  its  way,  but  it  must  be  briefly  touched  here. 
The  council  had  been  indicted  for  the  7  th  of  June.  On 
that  day  Nestorius  had  arrived,  and  Cyril  and  various 
parties  of  bishops  presented  themselves  during  the  following 
days;  but  the  representatives  of  the  see  of  Eome  on  the 
one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  John  of  Antioch,  with  a  large 
body  of  Eastern  bishops,  had  not  arrived  (though  they  were 
understood  to  be  not  far  off),  when  on  the  22nd  the  council, 
at  the  instance  of  Cyril  and  those  who  agreed  with  him, 
resolved  to  open  its  proceedings.  This  step  was  taken 
against  the  remonstrances  of  Nestorius,  of  a  considerable 
number  of  Eastern  bishops,  and  of  Candidianus,  who  repre- 
sented the  emperor.  Nestorius,  in  reply  to  repeated 
messages,  refused  to  attend  until  those  who  were  on  the 
way  to  the  council  should  have  arrived.  The  council  pro- 
ceeded in  his  absence ;  and  on  the  same  day,  2  2nd  June,  they 
caused  to  be  read  the  Nicene  Creed,  the  second  letter  of 
Cyril  to  Nestorius,  which  was  approved,  the  reply  of 
Nestorius,  also  the  letter  of  Ccelestinus  of  Eome,  and  the 
third  letter  of  Cyril  with  the  anathematismi? 

Two  bishops  who  had  been  sent  to  summon  Nestorius 
were  examined  as  to  what  passed  at  their  interview. 
Passages  from  the  works  of  twelve  older  teachers  of  the 
Church  were  read  (many  to  the  effect  that  the  Son  or  Logos 
was  born  and  suffered  in  the  flesh).  Lastly,  about  twenty 
passages  from  the  writings  of  Nestorius  were  produced, 
which  were  alleged  to  establish  the  peculiarity  of  his  point 
and  mode  of  view. 

Then  the  decree  of  the  council  was  formulated  as 
follows : — 

"As  the  ungodly  Nestorius,  in  addition  to  all  else,  has 
refused  to  obey  our  citation,  and  to  receive  the  bishops  sent 

^  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  a  very  special  invitation  was  sent  to 
Augustine,  but  he  had  already  died  on  22nd  August. 
^  Apparently  approbation  of  this  letter  was  not  asked. 


313-451]         REGARDING   THE   PERSON    OF   CHRIST  387 

to  him,  we  have  found  it  necessary  to  proceed  to  the  exam- 
ination of  his  impious  utterances.  And  discovering  from  his 
letters  and  treatises,  and  also  from  his  utterances  in  the 
metropolitan  city,  which  have  been  borne  witness  to,  that  he 
cherishes  and  proclaims  impious  doctrines,  we  are  constrained 
by  the  canons,  according  to  the  letter  of  our  most  holy  father 
and  fellow-servant  Coelestinus,  bishop  of  the  Eoman  church, 
to  come  with  many  tears  to  this  sentence:  Our  dear  Jesus 
Christ,  who  has  been  blasphemed  by  him,  has  determined 
through  this  most  holy  Synod,  that  Nestorius  is  excluded 
from  the  episcopal  dignity,  and  from  all  priestly  fellowship." 

All  this  was  done  on  the  one  day,  the  22nd  of  June. 
Four  or  five  days  later  John  of  Antioch  with  his  bishops 
arrived,  expressed  his  grave  displeasure  at  the  course  taken, 
and  formed  a  protesting  counter-council.  These  proceedings 
were  reported  to  the  emperor,  who  at  first  decided  that 
Nestorius  on  the  one  hand,  Cyril  and  Memnon  of  Ephesus 
on  the  other,  should  all  alike  be  regarded  as  deposed.  But 
eventually,  under  whatever  influences,  he  altered  his  attitude. 
The  deposition  of  Nestorius  was  maintained,  and  he  was 
sent  into  exile,  but  Cyril  and  Memnon  were  sent  back  to 
their  sees. 

Plainly  the  decree  of  Ephesus  was  inequitable,  because 
Nestorius  had  no  fair  trial  on  the  merits,  and  the  merits,  as 
regards  his  real  position,  are  obscure  to  this  day.  Besides, 
the  doctrine  condemned  was  not  stated,  iior  the  counter 
doctrine  defined. 

Whatever  view  we  may  take  of  the  position  of  Nes- 
torius, his  judges  no  doubt  apprehended  that  in  the  line  of 
his  statements  Nestorianism  in  the  technical  sense  (the 
Nestorianism  of  the  Church  histories)  was  approaching ;  and 
the  council  resolved  to  shut  it  out. 

The  course  they  took,  however,  left  it  uncertain  what 
they  condemned  and  what  they  sanctioned,  for  no  theological 
light  is  emitted  by  the  decree.^  Perhaps  the  result  may  be 
summed  up  in  this,  that  the  term  0€ot6ko<;  was  sanctioned. 
The  sense  intended  in  that  term  has  ever  since  been  generally 
accepted  by  believers  in  the  Incarnation,  inasmuch,  namely, 

*  The  second  epistle  of  Cyril,  however,  had  previously  been  approved. 


388       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

as  He  who  was  born  of  the  Virgin  was  the  Son  of  God, — just 
as  the  same  Son  bore  our  sins  in  His  body  upon  the  tree. 
Most  Protestants,  however,  have  disapproved  and  avoided 
the  phrase  itself,  as  lacking  Scripture  authority,  and  as  tend- 
ing to  produce  mental  confusion.  The  Virgin  became  the 
mother  of  the  Lord,  which  is  the  safe  and  satisfying 
Christian  phrase.  In  addition  to  this,  the  word  "  theotokos  " 
became,  as  it  was  likely  from  the  first  to  become,  not  so 
much  the  means  of  uttering  faith  about  the  Lord,  but  rather 
of  associating  the  Virgin  with  God,  and  taking  an  attitude 
towards  her  which  is  idolatrous. 

John  of  Antioch  and  many  of  his  followers,  while  they 
did  not  believe  that  Nestorius  had  fallen  into  any  serious 
error,  yet  regarded  his  conduct  of  the  case  as  unwise,  and 
felt  that  he  had  made  it  difficult  to  defend  him.  They 
regretted  his  attack  on  a  phrase  which  had  high  authority 
in  usage,  and  which  was  associated  with  strong  religious 
feelings.  After  the  council,  it  becomes  pretty  plain  that  the 
party  are  more  disposed  to  charge  questionable  expressions 
upon  Cyril  than  to  accept  the  odium  of  vindicating  Nestorius. 

The  two  parties,  however,  were  not  really  much  removed 
from  one  another,  and  steps  were  taken  to  avert  schism. 
Probably  John  early  made  up  his  mind  to  let  Nestorius  fall, 
a  course  which  Theodoret  could  not  persuade  himself  to 
adopt.  But  John  was  resolved  that  if  he  gave  satisfac- 
tion to  the  Alexandrians  in  this  form,  he  must  receive  a 
quid  jpro  quo.  He  demanded  that  Cyril  should  accept  a 
statement  on  the  debated  points  satisfactory  to  the  Antioch- 
ians.  We  possess  this  statement,  and  it  is  very  nearly  the 
same  with  one  which  the  Antiochians  had  drawn  up  as  a 
manifesto  of  their  position,  and  had  forwarded  to  the 
emperor  for  his  information,  probably  in  August  431. 
Most  likely  it  was  originally  drawn  up  by  Theodoret.  Cyril 
agreed  to  accept  it.  His  action  in  doing  this  enhances  the 
impression  of  his  power  as  a  theologian  and  his  ability  as  a 
leader.  A  weaker  man  would  have  hesitated.  John,  on  his 
part,  agreed  to  accept  the  decree  of  Ephesus  and  to 
anathematise  the    teaching  of   Nestorius.     The  formula  in 


313-451]         REGARDING   THE   PERSON    OF    CHRIST  389 

which  he  did  so  gave  prominence  to  the  motive  of  restoring 
the  peace  of  the  Clmrch  as  leading  him  to  this  course. 

The  statement  accepted  and  adopted  by  Cyril  begins 
with  an  introduction  : — 

"  We  wish  now,  since  this  has  become  necessary,  briefly  to 
declare,  according  to  the  Scriptures  and  the  traditions  of  the 
Chui'ch,  what  we  believe  and  teach  concerning  the  Virgin, 
theotokos,  and  concerning  the  Incarnation;  not  in  order  to 
add  anything  new,  only  for  the  satisfaction  of  others,  but  not 
to  adjoin  anything  to  the  faith  expounded  at  Nicaea.  As  we 
have  said,  that  creed  is  fully  sufficient  for  the  knowledge  of 
religion  and  for  the  repelling  of  heretical  error.  And  we  do 
not  give  this  explanation  as  if  we  would  grapple  with  the 
incomprehensible,  but  in  order  that  by  the  confession  of  our 
own  weakness  we  may  repel  those  who  impute  that  we 
expound  what  is  to  men  incomprehensibla" 

Then  follows  the  belief : — 

"We  confess  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  only 
begotten  Son  of  God,  is  true  God,  and  true  man  of  a  reason- 
able soul  and  a  body  consisting,  before  all  time  begotten  of  the 
Father  according  to  the  Godhead,  but  in  the  end  of  the  days 
for  us  and  for  our  salvation  born  of  the  Virgin  according  to 
the  manhood ;  of  like  essence  with  the  Father  in  respect  of  the 
Godhead,  and  of  like  essence  with  us  according  to  the  man- 
hood ;  for  of  two  natures  a  union  has  come  to  pass.  There- 
fore we  confess  one  Christ,  one  Lord,  one  Son.  On  account 
of  this  union,  which  is  without  mixture  or  confusion,  we 
confess  also  that  the  Holy  Virgin  is  the  Theotokos,  because 
the  Logos  became  flesh  and  man,  and  even  from  the  beginning 
united  Himself  with  the  temple  which  He  assumed  from  her." 

What  follows  was  added  on  the  occasion  of  the  com- 
promise between  Cyril  and  John : — 

"As  to  what  concerns  the  Evangelical  and  Apostolical 
utterances  concerning  Christ,  we  know  that  theologians 
apply  some,  as  bearing  on  the  One  Person,  to  both  natures 
in  common,  but  separate  others  as  relating  to  the  two 
natures." 

Cyril's  acceptance  of  this  formula  was  responded  to  by  a 
letter  from  John  embodying  in  frank  language  the  conditions 


390       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

agreed  to  upon  his  part.  So  a  modus  vivendi  was  estab- 
lished, and  it  was  announced  that  peace  was  restored. 

The  settlement  thus  reached  was  disapproved  and  re- 
sisted by  some  on  both  sides.  Among  the  bishops  of  John's 
patriarchate,  the  majority  followed  their  patriarch ;  but  two 
distinct  parties  formed  and  took  action  in  the  opposite 
direction.  The  more  extreme  declared  against  the  views 
of  Cyril  as  plainly  heretical;  they  regarded  John's  com- 
promise as  treacherous;  and  they,  of  course,  refused  to 
concur  in  the  condemnation  of  Nestorius.  A  more  moderate 
party,  headed  by  Theodoret,  were  willing  to  acknowledge 
that  Cyril's  signature  of  the  new  formula  might  be  held  to 
be  a  proof  of  his  orthodoxy  (though  some  of  them  main- 
tained that  he  ought,  in  addition,  to  disclaim  some  of  his 
previous  statements);  but  they  regarded  the  whole  trans- 
action as  having  too  much  the  aspect,  on  the  Antiochian 
side,  of  acknowledging  defeat, — especially  as  four  Antiochian 
bishops  besides  Nestorius  had  been  deposed,  and  were  not 
to  be  restored.  They  also,  like  the  first  party,  protested 
against  recognising  the  justice  of  the  condemnation  of 
Nestorius.  Not  receiving  satisfaction  on  these  points,  a 
considerable  number  of  bishops,  on  the  one  set  of  grounds 
or  on  the  other,  declined  to  hold  communion  either  with 
John  or  with  Cyril.  But  John  took  resolute  action,  and 
the  emperor  came  to  his  aid.  Eventually  most  of  the 
malcontents  gave  in, — Theodoret  himself  returning  to  fellow- 
ship on  the  footing  that  he  should  not  be  required  to  say 
anything  about  Nestorius.  Fifteen  bishops  who  held  out 
were  driven  from  their  sees.  These  bishops  and  their 
adherents  were,  in  time,  driven  out  of  the  empire ;  they 
took  refuge  under  the  Persian  monarchy  ;  and  a  Nestorian 
Christianity  was  inaugurated  which  long  continued  to 
operate,  and  to  operate  beneficially,  in  the  remote  East. 

On  the  other  side  some  of  the  followers  of  Cyril  were 
gravely  dissatisfied.  They  blamed  Cyril  for  accepting  the 
statement  proposed  to  him  by  John,  and  they  regarded 
the  renewed  fellowship  with  the  mass  of  the  Eastern 
bishops    as     equivalent    to     the    reception    of    impenitent 


313-451]         REGARDING    THE    PERSON   OF   CHRIST  391 

heretics.  Some  of  the  dissatisfied,  perhaps,  misunderstood 
the  true  nature  of  Cyril's  action ;  but  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  many  of  them  were  already  monophysites,  and  main- 
tained that  doctrine  as  the  true  orthodoxy.  The  tendencies 
that  way  were  strong  in  Egypt,  as  we  have  seen.  The 
exceptions  taken  against  his  action  were  energetically  met 
by  Cyril  in  various  writings,  in  which  he  offered  elaborate 
explanations ;  and  in  the  course  of  these  he  takes  up  afresh 
and  defends  phrases,  which  afterwards  were  strongly  appealed 
to  by  the  monophysites,  especially  a  sentence  ascribed  to 
Athanasius  which  spoke  of  the  ^la  (f)i>(Ti^  rod  \6yov  aeaap- 
KcofiipTj — "  the  one  incarnate  nature  of  the  Word."  ^ 

Cyril  succeeded  in  averting  ostensible  schism  among  his 
followers,  the  rather  because  in  procuring  the  general 
acceptance  of  the  decision  of  Ephesus  he  had  inflicted  a 
substantial  defeat  on  the  tendencies  of  the  Antiochian 
school ;  but  there  remained  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere  a 
strong  monophysite  party,  which  ere  long  was  to  reveal 
itself  clearly. 

After  all  this  Cyril  opened  an  attack  upon  the  writings 
of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia.  He  did  so  at  the  instance  of 
Eabulas  of  Edessa,  who  was  one  of  his  adherents  in  the 
East.  Theodore  had  died  (a.d.  428)  before  the  Nestorian 
controversy  broke  out.  Now  that  Nestorius  and  his 
writings  were  condemned,  men  of  Nestorian  principles,  it 
was  said,  were  circulating  writings  of  Theodorus,  and  also 
of  Diodorus  of  Tarsus,  and  some  of  these  were  being  trans- 
lated into  the  Syrian,  Armenian,  and  Persian  languages. 
The  name  of  Theodorus  was  venerated  in  the  East,  and  his 
writings  found  ready  reception. 

The  bishops  of  Armenia,  apprehending  danger,  sent  to 
Proclus,  now  bishop  of  Constantinople,  to  ask  for  guidance 
in  regard  to  these  writings.  Proclus  drew  up  a  treatise 
adverse  to  the  teaching  of  Theodorus,  and  Cyril  published 
others  in  the  same  line.  Men  now  began  to  speak  of 
anathematising  Theodorus ;  and  Armenian  monks,  in  their 

*  Athan.  De  Incam.,  Migne,  vol.  iv.  p.  25.     This,  therefore,  was  already 
ascribed  to  Athanasius  in  Cyril's  day.     See  ante,  pp.  360,  363. 


5  92  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH  [a.d. 

enthusiasm,  went  so  far  as  to  denounce  utterances  of  his 
which  were  plainly  orthodox.  It  was  clearly  undesirable 
to  push  the  matter  further,  and  the  emperor  published  an 
edict  exhorting  to  peace,  and  deprecating  the  condemnation 
of  men  who  had  died  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Church. 
About  this  time  Eabulas  died.  He  was  succeeded  by  Ibas, 
who  belonged  to  the  opposite  school,  and  who  venerated 
the  memory  of  Theodorus.  The  controversy  then  dropped 
for  a  time.  The  bias,  however,  which  these  proceedings 
gave  to  the  Armenian  church  may  prepare  us  for  the 
adhesion  to  monophysite  principles  which  finally  fixed  its 
dogmatic  position. 

Nestorianism  had  no  future  within  the  empire.  The 
school  of  Edessa,  from  the  days  of  Ibas  onwards,  did  lean 
somewhat  in  that  direction,  and  distrusted  the  theology  of 
Cyril ;  but  that  school  was  destroyed  by  the  Emperor  Zeno 
in  489.  Under  the  Persian  monarchy,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Nestorian  Christianity  developed  an  active  life.  For  a 
long  time  their  patriarch  resided  at  Ctesiphon  or  at  Bagdad ; 
and  in  the  thirteenth  century  twenty-five  metropolitans,  it 
was  said,  owned  his  authority.  The  invasion  of  Tamerlane 
fell  on  these  Christians  with  peculiar  severity.  A  very  small 
remnant  now  survives. 

The  Nestorians  never  called  themselves  by  that  name. 
They  professed  to  abide  by  the  Nicene  Creed;  in  the 
interpretation  of  Scripture  they  chiefly  followed  Theodorus. 


B.    CASE    OF    EUTYCHES 

The  reconciliation  between  John  of  Antioch  and  Cyril 
took  place  a.d.  433.  During  the  years  which  followed, 
although  the  dispute  had  ostensibly  ended,  suspicion  and 
jealousy  continued  to  exist.  In  particular,  the  more  ex- 
treme men  of  Cyril's  school  identified  the  Church's  orthodoxy 
with  their  own  party,  and  in  their  opinion  a  strong  pre- 
sumption of  concealed  Nestorianism  attached  to  all  followers 
of  the  Antiochian  school.  They  felt  entitled,  therefore,  to 
take  active  steps  on  any  promising  opportunity,  and  they 


313-451]         REGARDING   THE   PERSON   OF   CHRIST  393 

relied,  not  without  reason,  on  the  sympathy  of  the  imperial 
court.  Shortly  before  the  middle  of  the  century  signs  of 
returning  strife  multiplied.  Ibas  (see  last  page),  who 
had  succeeded  Eabulas  at  Edessa,  was  subjected  to  severe 
trouble  by  accusations  of  various  kinds;  his  position  be- 
came finally  untenable  about  448.  In  the  same  year 
Irenseus,  a  friend  of  Nestorius,  who  (about  446)  had 
become  metropolitan  of  Tyre,  was  driven  from  his  see. 
Theodoret  also  was  placed  under  some  restrictions.  At 
this  time  the  see  of  Constantinople,  after  being  filled 
successively  by  Maximian  and  Proclus,  was  held  (from  447) 
by  Flavian.  He  was  certainly  opposed  to  Nestorius,  and 
in  particular  had  showed  himself  to  be  in  sympathy  with 
the  hostile  action  against  Ibas.  He  was,  however,  not  in 
favour  with  Chrysaphius,  who  guided  the  counsels  of  Theo- 
dosius  n. 

There  was  at  Constantinople  an  aged  archimandrite 
(head,  in  fact,  of  the  famous  monastery  called  Studium) 
whose  name  was  Eutyches.  A  devoted  follower  of  Cyrirs 
teaching,  he  conceived  orthodoxy  very  much  as  opposition 
to  Nestorius,  and  felt  that  safety  lay  solely  in  that  direction. 
His  contemporaries  did  not  think  highly  of  his  abilities, 
though  his  character  and  his  position  were  venerable.  As 
happens  to  such  men,  he  conceived  himself  to  be  an 
authority  on  the  questions  in  dispute.  Like  many  of  his 
party,  he  would  not  hear  of  the  continued  existence  of  two 
natures  after  the  Incarnation;  and  this  had  shaped  itself 
in  his  mind  to  an  impression  and  assertion  that  Christ's 
nature  is  not  consubstantial  with  ours.  What  he  meant  is 
not,  perhaps,  clear ;  it  was  imputed  to  him  by  some  that  he 
held  our  Lord  to  have  brought  His  human  nature  from 
heaven;  but  this  he  repudiated.  He  must  have  contrived 
to  create  in  various  quarters  some  uneasiness  by  the  form 
he  gave  to  his  An  tines  torianism,  if  it  is  true  that  Domnus 
of  Antioch,  and  others  also,  had  contemplated  a  formal 
challenge  of  his  theology.  But  the  assault  came  from 
another  quarter. 

In  the  course  of  the  year  448,  Flavian  had  assembled 


394       tHE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.b. 

a  "  synodos  endemousa  "  ^  to  dispose  of  some  business  which 
required  attention.  When  that  was  concluded,  Eusebius, 
bishop  of  Dorylseum,  rose  to  make  a  formal  charge  of 
heterodoxy  against  Eutyches,  and  to  claim  that  he  should 
be  summoned  to  answer  for  himself. 

This  Eusebius  had  shown  some  animosity  against 
Nestorius,  and,  therefore,  so  far  belonged  to  the  same 
party  as  Eutyches;  but,  according  to  Eutyches,  Eusebius 
was  a  personal  enemy,  whose  accusations  proceeded  from 
malice.  However  this  may  be,  all  we  read  of  Eusebius 
suggests  a  personage  who  loved  to  be  loud  and  prominent 
in  theological  disputes,  and  who,  once  embarked  in  them, 
was  mainly  concerned  about  securing  his  own  reputation  by 
winning  the  battle.  On  the  other  hand,  Flavian  and  the 
council  seem  to  have  treated  Eutyches,  on  the  whole,  in  a 
considerate  manner.  Eutyches,  astonished  probably  to  find 
accusations  of  heresy  levelled  against  himself,  was  very 
unwilling  to  appear  at  all,  and,  when  he  did,  he  made  state- 
ments that  were  not  very  clear.  He  repudiated  the  imput- 
ation of  teaching  that  our  Lord  brought  His  human  nature 
with  Him  from  heaven ;  on  the  other  hand,  he  declined  to 
speak  of  two  natures  after  the  Incarnation ;  also,  to  admit 
that  our  Lord's  humanity  is  consubstantial  with  ours.  The 
synod  finally  came  to  this  conclusion  : — "  Eutyches,  hereto- 
fore priest  and  archimandrite,  has  by  his  earlier  statements 
and  by  his  present  confessions  proved  himself  to  be  entangled 
in  the  perversions  of  Valentinus  and  of  Apollinarius,  and 
has  not  been  persuaded  by  our  instruction  and  admonition 
to  receive  the  pure  doctrine.  Therefore  we,  bewailing  his 
complete  perversion,  do,  in  the  name  of  Christ  whom  he  has 
wronged,  declare  him  deposed  from  office  as  a  priest, 
excluded  from  our  communion,  and  deprived  of  the  presi- 
dency of  his  convent.  All  who  henceforth  hold  communi- 
cation with  him  are  to  know  that  they  also  receive  the  pain 
of  excommunication."  This  sentence  was  concurred  in  by 
Florentius,  a  lay  official  of  the  emperor,  reputed  to  be  a 
skilful  theologian,  who  had  been  sent  by  the  emperor  to 
^  I.e.  composed  of  bishops  who  happened  to  be  at  Constantinople. 


313-4511         RKGAKDINO    THE   PERSON   OF    CHRIST  J^95 

take   part   in    tlio   proceedings,   no   donbt   with    a  view   to 
protect  Eutyches  as  far  as  possible. 

Eutyches  had  still  the  powerful  friendship  of  the 
emperor's  favourite,  Chrysapius,  who  was  his  godson.  He 
was  therefore  by  no  means  disposed  to  submit  without  a 
struggle,  and  both  sides  exerted  themselves  to  procure 
support.  Dioscurus  of  Alexandria  was  ready  enough  to 
take  part  in  the  strife  on  the  side  of  Eutyches.  He  had 
come  to  the  bishopric  at  the  death  of  Cyril  in  444.  He 
appears  to  have  been  a  resolute  monophysite ;  and  he 
embraced  cordially,  and  followed  out  unscrupulously,  the 
Alexandrian  policy  of  improving  doctrinal  uneasiness  with 
a  view  to  advance  the  power  of  that  see.  Apart  from  him 
the  most  important  men  to  gain  were  the  bishop  Leo  of 
Eome  and  the  emperor.  Leo  took  time  for  consideration 
until  all  the  papers  were  before  him ;  he  then  decided  that 
Eutyches  was  justly  condemned,  and  that  Flavian  had  acted 
rightly.  The  emperor,  on  the  other  hand,  was  from  the 
first  prepossessed  in  favour  of  Eutyches,  and  ere  long  he 
resolved  to  call  a  council  to  reconsider  the  case.  Leo  saw 
no  need  for  this,  and  would  have  had  the  emperor  act 
under  the  guidance  of  Flavian  and  himself;  but  as  the 
emperor  proceeded  to  summon  the  council,  Leo  sent 
representatives  to  it.  He  also  sent  to  Flavian  a  long 
theological  statement  upon  the  matter  in  dispute,  which 
became  very  celebrated.^ 

The  council  was  summoned  to  meet  at  Ephesus,  1st 
August  449.  The  emperor  appointed  that  Dioscurus 
should  preside.     He  also  forbade  Theodoret  to  be  present. 

About  one  hundred  and  thirty  bishops  assembled ;  and, 
apparently  at  the  very  first  sitting,  after  reading  the  papers 
in  the  case,  but  without  reading  the  letter  of  the  bishop  of 
Eome,  or  giving  any  proper  hearing  to  Flavian,  or  to 
Eusebius  of  Dorylseum,  Eutyches  was  restored,  and  Flavian 
and  Eusebius  were  deposed.  All  this  took  place  at  the 
instance  of  Dioscurus,  and  seemingly  amid  much  confusion 
and  violence,  and  amid  threats,  which  acted  as  compulsion 

*  Leo,  Ep.  xxviii.,  "  The  Dogmatical  Epistle  of  Leo," 


396       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

on  the  bishops  who  might  have  stood  by  Flavian.  Only 
one  of  the  legates  from  Eome  seems  to  have  ventured  on  an 
attempt  to  discharge  his  duties ;  and  he  was  glad  to  escape 
and  to  find  his  way  back  to  Eome  incognito.  Flavian  died 
shortly  after,  owing,  it  is  said,  to  the  rough  handling  he 
received.  Writers  near  the  date  of  the  council  report 
(though  this  does  not  appear  in  the  extant  acts)  that 
Domnus  of  Antioch  also  was  deposed,  along  with  Theodoret 
and  some  other  bishops.  In  room  of  Flavian,  Anatolius  was 
appointed  to  the  see  of  Constantinople,  and  Maximus  to 
that  of  Antioch  in  room  of  Domnus.  Such  were  some  of 
the  features  of  what  Leo  stigmatised  as  the  Latrocinium 
Ephesinum. 

On  receiving  information  of  these  proceedings,  Leo  exerted 
himself,  successfully,  to  rally  the  West  to  the  doctrine  con- 
demned in  the  person  of  Flavian.  He  also  wrote  earnestly 
and  repeatedly  to  the  emperor,  and  to  others  in  high  position 
in  the  East.  The  question  as  to  the  see  of  Constantinople 
had  also  to  be  dealt  with.  Leo  declined  to  recognise  the 
new  bishop,  until  he  received  satisfaction  regarding  his 
orthodoxy.  His  efforts  to  reverse  the  decision  of  Ephesus 
might,  however,  have  fallen  short  of  success,  had  not 
Theodosius  li.  died,  28th  July  450.  His  sister,  Pulcheria, 
came  to  the  throne,  assuming  Marcian,  an  able  statesman 
and  soldier,  as  her  husband  and  co-regnant.  Pulcheria  had 
already  satisfied  herself  that  Flavian  and  Leo  were  in  the 
right.  In  order  to  restore  the  Church's  peace,  another 
council  was  summoned,  to  meet  at  Chalcedon  451.  On  this 
occasion,  also,  Leo  deprecated  the  project  of  a  council :  he 
had  received  satisfactory  letters  from  Anatolius,  and  he 
thought  sound  doctrine  could  be  vindicated  by  dealing  firmly 
with  cases  in  detail.  But  as  the  imperial  authorities  per- 
sisted, Leo  acquiesced,  and  sent  deputies.  The  meeting- 
place,  Chalcedon,  was  near  Constantinople,  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Bosphorus.  This  council  was  far  more  numerously 
attended  than  any  that  preceded.  The  numbers  given 
vary  from  520  to  630;  but  none  were  from  the  West 
except  the  Pope's  legates,  and  two  bishops  from  Africa — 


313-451]  REGARDING    THE    PERSON    OF    CHRIST  397 

waiidcrers,  perhaps,  whom  tlie  Vandal  persecution  had  set 
adrift. 

C.    COUNCIL   OF   CHALCEDON 

At  the  council  of  Chalcedon  it  was  well  understood  that 
the  violent  proceedings  at  Ephesus  could  not  be  supported, 
and  no  great  difficulty  was  found  in  constraining  Dioscurus, 
the  ringleader  in  those  proceedings,  to  sit  apart  from  the 
rest  of  the  council,  as  one  whose  conduct  required  to  be 
investigated.  But  after  the  preliminaries  had  been  arranged 
and  the  necessary  documents  read,  it  was  a  delicate  question 
what  step  should  next  be  taken.  A  considerable  section  of 
the  council  had  monophysite  prepossessions,  and  large  dis- 
tricts of  the  empire  sympathised  with  these  feelings.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  "  Orientals"  could  not  be  willing  to  lose 
the  opportunity  of  retrieving  the  defeat  they  had  experienced 
twenty  years  before;  and  the  West,  which,  through  the 
bishop  of  Eome,  had  taken  its  ground  so  explicitly,  was  not 
likely  to  be  contented  with  an  ambiguous  result.  A  con- 
siderable number  of  those  in  the  East  who  had  heartily 
opposed  Nestorius,  were  now  willing  to  think  that  Eutyches 
had  gone  astray  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  they  resented 
the  maltreatment  of  Flavian  and  the  arrogant  conduct  of 
Dioscurus ;  but  they  were  anxious  and  sensitive  as  to  the 
theological  position  which,  in  connection  with  Dioscurus' 
overthrow,  they  might  be  called  upon  to  accept. 

The  council,  however,  began  with  a  question  of  less 
difficulty.  The  conduct  of  Dioscurus  had  been  indefensible, 
and  he  was  now  deposed.  That  step  had  no  precise 
theological  significance,  but  it  meant  much  ;  practically,  it 
operated  as  a  warning  to  all  waverers.  Those  who  had 
been  conspicuous  as  supporters  of  Dioscurus  at  once  felt 
themselves  in  danger ;  appeals  to  the  majority  of  the 
council  to  act  mercifully  began  to  be  heard. 

The  next  step  was  to  express  adherence  to  received 
doctrinal  determinations,  including  certain  explanations  of 
Cyril,  but  including  also  the  dogmatical  epistle  of  Leo. 
This  received  general  assent;  but  it  appeared  that  many 


')9f^  THE   ANCIENT    CATHOLIC    CHURCH  [a.d. 

Egyptian  bishops  demurred,  not,  however,  ostensibly  on  the 
ground  of  dissenting  from  the  teaching,  but  on  the  ground 
that  until  they  received  a  new  patriarch,  under  whose 
guidance  they  could  act,  it  was  utterly  unsafe  for  them  to 
become  responsible  for  the  declaration  proposed.  This 
could  hardly  be  regarded  as  other  than  a  pretext,  but  it  was 
met  by  an  order  not  to  depart  from  Chalcedon  until  they 
should  have  given  satisfaction.  Then  the  council  proceeded 
to  deal  with  the  question  of  Faith,  as  raised  by  the  teaching 
of  Eutyches,  and  by  the  proceedings,  in  his  case,  of  Flavian's 
council.  There  had  long  been  great  unwillingness  to  add 
anything  doctrinal  to  the  creed  of  Nicsea, — the  council  of 
Ephesus  of  431  had  avoided  doing  so  in  the  case  of 
Nestorius.  But  it  was  becoming  evident  that  no  official 
security  against  error  could  be  provided  by  merely  deposing 
particular  men  without  saying  what  their  error  was,  or  what 
the  form  of  teaching  against  which  they  had  offended.  This 
became  very  plain  in  dealing  with  the  case  of  the  mono- 
phy sites.  In  regard  to  Nestorius,  it  could  plausibly  be  said 
that  he  diverged  from  the  declaration  of  the  Nicene  Creed, 
which  taught  that  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God  was  born 
of  the  Virgin  Mary.  Eutyches  granted  the  assumption  by 
our  Lord  of  the  human  nature :  the  effect  of  that  assumption 
was  the  point  he  brought  into  question ;  and  if  any  doctrine 
on  that  point  was  to  be  maintained,  it  required  to  be  articu- 
lated. Some  time  had  to  be  spent  on  maturing  a  statement ; 
and  some  hesitation  over  Leo's  phrases  was  manifested, 
especially  on  the  part  of  some  lUyrian  bishops.  At  length 
a  form  was  settled.  A  long  introduction  set  forth  the 
relation  of  the  council  to  previous  discussions  regarding  the 
Incarnation  of  the  Lord,  and  various  errors  were  condemned, 
last  of  all  the  error  of  those  who  say  that  before  the  union 
there  are  two  natures,  after  it  only  one.     And  so, — 

"Following  the  holy  fathers,  we  teach  unanimously  the 
confession  of  one  and  the  same  Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
perfect,  the  same,  in  the  Godhead,  and  perfect,  the  same,  in 
the  manhood;  being.  He  the  same,  truly  God  and  truly 
man,  of  reasonable  soul  and  body;  consubstantial  with  the 


313-451]         REGARDING   THE   PERSON   OF    CHRIST  399 

Father  according  to  the  Godhead,  and  consubstantial,  He 
the  same,  with  us  according  to  the  manhood ;  in  all  things 
like  unto  us,  sin  excepted ;  before  the  ages  begotten  of  the 
Father  according  to  the  Godhe^Cd,  but  in  the  latter  days,  He 
the  same,  for  our  sake  and  for  our  salvation,  begotten  of 
Mary  the  virgin  mother  of  God  according  to  the  manhood ; 
and  the  same  Christ,  Son,  Lord ;  owned  in  two  natures, 
without  confusion,  without  conversion,  without  division, 
without  separation ;  the  difference  of  the  natures  not  being 
taken  away  by  the  union,  but  rather  each  nature  being 
preserved  in  its  propriety,  and  concurring  to  one  person 
(irpoacoTTov)  and  to  one  hypostasis;  not  parted  or  divided 
into  two  persons,  but  one  and  the  same  Son,  only  begotten, 
God  the  Word,  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  prophets  of  old, 
and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  have  taught  us,  and  the 
confession  of  the  fathers  has  delivered  to  us."  This  was 
followed  by  denunciation  of  deposition  or  excommunication 
on  those  who  teach  otherwise.^ 

*  A  curious  question  exists  about  a  critical  clause  in  this  decree  concerning  the 
Faith.  As  given  above  it  reads,  "  owned  in  two  natures  [iv  dio  (pOaeai),  without 
confusion,  etc."  In  the  Greek  copies,  however,  it  stands  as  €k  8vo  (pvaeuv,  "of 
two  natures"  ;  the  Latin  copies  support  the  other  reading.  Two  things  may 
be  noticed.  One  is  that  the  introductory  part  of  the  decree  condemns  those 
who  say  that  before  the  union  there  are  two  natures,  but  after  it  only  one. 
Now,  "of  two  natures  "  was  the  phrase  affected  by  this  very  party.  The  other 
is  that  when  the  question  of  the  decree  was  under  consideration,  the  committee 
charged  with  forming  it  brought  up  a  report  in  the  fifth  sitting  of  the  council, 
which  was  strongly  recommended  for  adoption  by  Anatolius  of  Constantinople. 
It  was  objected  to  as  not  sufficiently  decisive,  as  capable  of  being  interpreted 
in  the  sense  of  Dioscurus.  The  document  has  not  been  preserved,  but  one 
criticism  upon  it  has  survived.  Flavian  of  Constantinople  had  been  con- 
demned by  Dioscurus  and  his  followers  for  having  said  that  in  Christ  there 
are  two  natures  :  the  committee's  formula  said  that  Christ  was  of  two  natures. 
That  was  in  itself  sound  enough,  but  it  could  be  interpreted  as  meaning  "o/, 
but  not  171 ;  Christ  is  of  two  natures,  but  in  one  nature  after  the  union."  The 
imperial  commissioners  therefore  remarked  that  the  doctrine  of  Leo  on  this 
subject  must  be  embodied  in  the  decree.  It  looks  as  if  at  this  fifth  sitting  a 
disposition  had  existed  to  settle  the  matter  in  the  terms  proposed  by  Anatolius, 
— perhaps  because  it  was  so  desirable  to  end  the  disputes, — perhaps  because 
the  fathers  dreaded  the  division  likely  to  ensue  if  the  matter  were  pressed 
further.  They  might  for  such  reasons  be  willing  to  think  it  enough  to 
mention  two  natures,  but  not  so  as  to  ensure  a  collision  with  the  mass  of 
nionophysite  sensitiveness.     But  when  it  was  put  to  them,  "  Dioscurus  says 


400       THE  ANCIENT  OATHOLIO  CHURCH       [a.d. 

The  creed  as  thus  adjusted  was  received  with  acclama- 
tions. 

The  sittings  of  the  council  were  still  prolonged  in  order 
to  dispose  of  some  matters  "of  ecclesiastical  interest.  Men 
like  Theodoret  and  Ibas,  who  had  been  deposed  by  the 
robber-synod  for  alleged  Nestorianism,  claimed  to  be  vindi- 
cated and  restored ;  and  canons  had  been  planned  to  which 
the  council's  assent  was  invited. 

The  main  charge  against  Ibas  was  that  he  had  impugned  the 
orthodoxy  of  passages  in  Cyril's  anathematismi.  He  had  not, 
however,  resisted  the  understanding  between  John  and  Cyril, 
and  he  had  no  difficulty  in  condemning  Nestorianism.  He 
was  therefore  restored. 

Theodoret  of  Cyrus  had  not  objected  to  the  term  Theo- 
tokos,  but  he  had  vigorously  controverted  Cyril  in  the  early 
days  of  the  controversy,  and  had  charged  him  with  erroneous 
teaching.  However,  after  Cyril's  acceptance  of  the  formula 
sent  to  him  by  John  of  Antioch,  Theodoret  approved  of  the 
quarrel  being  dropped.  But  Cyril  made  it  a  condition  that 
John  and  his  bishops,  each  for  himself,  should  anathematise 
Nestorius.  Theodoret,  who  believed  that  Nestorius  had  been 
misrepresented,  refused.  He  agreed  with  the  Church  in 
condemning  what  now  went  by  the  name  of  Nestorianism, 
but  he  declined  to  anathematise  Nestorius  himself. 

Meanwhile,  however,  it  had  been  accepted  as  a  settled 
token  of  orthodoxy  that  Nestorius  should  be  anathematised. 
All  the  procedure  against  Eutyches,  all  the  efforts  to  restore 
the  balance  between  conflicting  tendencies,  went  on  the 
basis  of  anathematising  Nestorius,  and  then  going  on  to 
anathematise  Eutyches  as  well.  When  Theodoret  was  intro- 
duced ^  into  the  council  of  Chalcedon  in  order  to  his  being 

of  two  natures,  Leo  says  in  two  natures,  which  will  you  follow  ? "  they  could 
only  give  one  answer,  and  the  formula  was  recommitted  tor  amendment.  In 
these  circumstances  the  amended  form,  which  was  brought  up  later  in  the  same 
day,  could  hardly  fail  to  read  iv  56o  ^Ocrecn.  Baur  and  Doiner,  however,  have 
judged  that  the  Greek  copies  ought  to  be  followed  ;  against  them  may  be  named 
Tillemont,  "Walch,  Gieseler,  Neander,  Hahn,  Hefele,  Harnack,  and  Loofs. 

^  At  the  eighth  sitting.     He  had  appeared  at  the  lirst,  but  the  personal 
j?^atter  had  not  then  been  disposed  of. 


31^-451]  REGARDING   THE   PERSON   OF   CHRIST  401 

restored,  he  was  prepared  to  give  ample  proof  of  his  per- 
sonal orthodoxy  by  referring  to  well-known  definitions  which 
he  ex  animo  embraced ;  and  he  tried  once  and  again  to  get 
the  council  to  accept  satisfaction  in  this  form.  It  was 
quite  in  vain.  He  was  met  with  shouts  of  "  anathematise 
Nestorius."  And  now  at  last  Theodoret  gave  way.  "  An- 
athema," he  said,  "  to  Nestorius  and  to  every  one  who  does 
not  call  the  blessed  Virgin  Theotokos,  or  who  divides  the 
only  begotten  Son  into  two  Sons.  Also  I  have  signed  the 
decree  of  the  council,  and  the  letter  of  Leo."  That  gave 
satisfaction,  and  Theodoret  was  vindicated. 

Probably  N"estorius  by  this  time  was  dead ;  and  Theo- 
doret had  this  excuse,  that  the  condemnation  of  Nestorius 
had  come  to  be  a  theological  flag,  which  had  to  be  hoisted 
if  he  was  to  gain  credit  for  the  faith  which  he  really  held. 
Theodoret  had  long  been  true  to  the  memory  of  his  old 
friend.  It  was  with  a  pang,  perhaps,  that  he  consented  to 
sacrifice  it  at  last.^ 

Monophysite  teaching  was  condemned  at  Chalcedon,  but 
it  was  destined  to  appear  and  work  energetically  for  genera- 
tions after.  It  may  be  fitting  to  say  something  here  of  a 
tendency  which  proved  to  be  so  strong  and  so  durable. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  already  that  early  writers  who 
desired  to  hold  fast  the  truth  of  the  Incarnation,  and  to 
impress  men  with  the  wonder  of  it,  were  led  to  dwell  on 
the  Unity  of  Christ — one  Christ,  God  and  Man.  In  doing 
so  they  certainly  followed  in  the  line  of  memorable  New  Testa- 
ment declarations.  They  had  therefore  to  think  of  Christ  as 
that  identical  subject  of  predication,  to  whom  there  might  be 
ascribed  what  belongs  to  the  Godhead  and  what  belongs  to 
the  manhood,  both  at  once,  both  with  equal  truth.  He  was 
begotten  from  eternity  and  begotten  in  time,  impassible  yet 
crucified,  the  Lord  of  life  yet  dead  and  buried. 

^  The  canons  of  Chalcedon  were  twenty-eight  or  thirty  in  numher.  The 
only  one  which  created  much  discussion  was  the  twenty-eighth,  asserting  that 
the  civic  dignity  of  Constantinople,  as  New  Rome,  carried  with  it  correspond- 
ing ecclesiastical  rank  and  privilege,  so  that  Constantinople  must  take  the 
second  place  in  precedency — and,  apparently,  a  not  inferior  place  to  the  first  in 
substantial  authority.  This  canon  was  indignantly  rejected  by  Leo. 
26 


402       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

Now  those  who,  in  their  zeal  against  Nestorianism, 
took  up  monophysite  ground,  thought  that  these  views  and 
impressions  could  be  secured  only  by  monophysite  forms  of 
speech.  They  loved  to  think  of  our  Lord's  person  as  a 
sublime  effect  of  divine  wisdom  and  goodness,  a  mystery 
too  glorious  to  be  fathomed.  They  therefore  resented  ex- 
planations that  proposed  to  bring  things  in  this  department 
to  the  level  of  human  experience.  They  clung  to  the 
thought  of  the  oneness  between  the  divine  nature  and  the 
human,  realised  in  the  person  of  Christ,  the  Son  of  God 
Incarnate.  This  was  the  bond  between  God  and  men  in 
which  Christians  rejoiced.  To  intro'duce  at  this  point  any- 
thing like  division  was  to  mar  the  very  centre  of  Chris- 
tianity:  it  was  to  break  the  keystone  of  the  arch.  The 
wonder  of  all  the  wonders  was  that  the  divine  and  the 
human  attributes  and  experiences  are  ascribed  not  to  two, 
but  to  one,  simply  and  singularly  one.  And  when  they 
met  with  distinctions  of  the  two  natures  in  Christ,  their 
impulse  was  to  say,  "We  will  have  here  no  two  natures. 
It  is  the  nature  of  Christ  to  have  all  these  things  true  of 
Him  at  once.  This  is  the  nature  of  the  incarnate  Word." 
With  these  views  was  often  associated  a  certain  type  of 
mystic  devoutness  which  in  its  extreme  forms  passed  into 
Pantheism. 

There  might  be  much  in  this  tendency  to  which  sym- 
pathy could  be  yielded,  and  the  language  of  its  representatives 
may  deserve  to  be  benevolently  interpreted.  Their  assertion 
of  the  one  (f>vaL<;  has  been  apologised  for  on  the  ground  that 
the  sense  of  terms  was  still  very  unsettled,  and  that  to  many 
minds  j>v(Tt^  might  carry  the  sense  of  person,  rather  than 
that  of  nature.  There  is  something  in  this,  but  hardly 
enough.  It  is  reasonable,  perhaps,  to  go  further  and 
admit  that  when  the  monophy sites  brought  out  the  unity 
of  Christ — the  complete  harmony  of  all  that  belongs  to 
Him — by  asserting  the  one  nature,  that,  by  itself,  might  be 
capable  of  being  explained.  In  that  case  it  would  have 
to  be  understood  as  a  way  of  expressing  the  %«/3t9  €va)aeo)<;, 
the  grace  of  the  union ;  and,  in  particular,  as  meant  to  bring 


313-451]  REGARDING    THE   PERSON    OF    CHRIST  403 

out  the  permanent  and  perfect  character  of  that  union, — 
that  we  may  rest  in  it  as  a  permanent  reality,  just  as  we  do 
rest  when  we  liave  fixed  or  assigned  to  anything  its  per- 
manent nature.  So  taken,  the  assertion  would  not  exclude 
the  continuance  of  the  divine  nature  and  of  the  human 
nature  in  the  union  of  them  both,  each  retaining  the  essential 
features  or  attributes  appropriate  to  each.  And  this  I  take 
to  be  the  real  position  of  Cyril,  who  acceded  to  the  form  of 
teaching  indicated  by  John  of  Antioch,  and  yet  continued 
occasionally  to  use  the  phrase  of  the  fjbia  <j)vai(;  aea-apKcofiivrj, 
But  the  monophysites  asserted  the  one  nature,  so  as  to 
declare  resolutely  against  the  acknowledgment,  in  any  sense, 
of  two  natures.  Christ  is  of  two  natures,  but  not  in  two 
natures.  So  they  involved  themselves  in  inferences  which 
led  them  far.  For  what  was  this  "  nature "  which  was 
neither  divine  nature  simply  nor  human  nature  simply  ? 
Practically  the  effect,  in  general,  was  to  lead  them  to 
explain  away  the  true  human  nature  of  our  Lord.  He 
is  not  now  consubstantial  with  us.  If  they  had  been 
content  to  assert  simply  that  in  some  sense  we  may  speak 
of  one  nature  in  Christ,  that  might  involve  an  inaccurate 
and  confusing  use  of  a  word,  but  might  be  allowed  to  pass ; 
but  when  the  phrase  was  expounded  into  the  formal  denial 
of  the  continuance,  without  confusion,  of  essential  human 
nature  with  the  divine  nature,  it  was  impossible  then  to 
avoid  the  tendency  to  merge  the  manhood  in  the  Godhead, 
and  to  explain  away  that  which  is  human  in  the  Lord  Jesus. 
In  doing  so  they  took  from  Him  what  is  needful  that  He 
may  be  our  head,  representative,  and  surety ;  and  in  the 
same  proportion  they  drifted  towards  a  style  of  religious 
feeling  to  which  these  views  of  Christ  are  not  essential  or 
even  important.  These  tendencies  among  the  Monophysites 
were  illustrated  in  a  lively  sectarianism,  the  movements  of 
which  will  claim  attention  in  a  subsequent  volume. 

To  sum  up.  In  the  unity  a  twofoldness  was  acknow- 
ledged. Christ  is  SiTrXou?,  as  the  three  great  Cappadocians 
often  say.  Presupposing  the  Nicene  assertion  of  our  Lord's 
true  divinity,  Nestorius  emphasised  this  SiirXov^ ;  his  oppon- 


404  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH     [a.d.  313-451 

ents  wished  to  give  it  the  gentlest  interpretation.  It  may 
well  be  believed  that  many  on  both  sides  received  all  that 
Scripture  clearly  teaches,  though  with  diverging  emphasis 
on  different  elements.  This  may  be  conceded  in  favour  of 
some  even  of  the  sects  which  took  formal  monophysite 
ground;  there  were  others  which  proceeded  to  feats  of 
fanciful  inference  not  only  erroneous  but  grotesque  and  mis- 
chievous. The  Church  pointed  out  hazards  on  both  sides, 
and  tried  to  settle  limits  of  phrase  by  means  of  which  those 
who  agreed  in  owning  both  aspects  might  understand  one 
another,  and  might  avoid  inferences  leading  into  contra- 
diction. Nor  does  it  seem  possible  to  do  more,  since  the 
very  words  which  we  must  use — as  Person  and  Nature — 
prove  to  be  at  best  approximate,  and  refuse  to  be  restrained 
by  invariable  definitions  when  we  carry  them  from  man  to 
God,  and  from  God  to  man. 

It  is  difficult  to  read  the  story  without  being  struck 
with  the  way  in  which,  under  the  influence  of  Scripture 
and  Providence,  compensations  take  place  in  connection 
with  such  debates  as  these.  For  though  on  either  side 
unwise  assertions  or  negations  were  put  forward,  the  fears 
of  neither  side  were  justified  by  the  event.  The  one  school 
never  lost  hold  of  the  faith  that  He  who  was  found  in 
fashion  as  a  man  was  the  same  who  was  in  the  form  of 
God.  The  other  school  never  clearly  denied  that  Jesus  was, 
and  continued  to  be,  true  man.  Individuals,  and  consider- 
able parties,  may  have  committed  themselves  to  phrases 
that  conflicted  with  these  faiths;  but  when  sections 
of  Christianity  became  separated  under  one  or  other 
of  the  contending  influences,  and  so  had  the  opportunity  to 
reveal  their  meaning  fully,  the  fundamental  principles  from 
which  they  both  proceeded,  along  with  the  compensating 
influences  of  the  gospel  history,  kept  them  from  going 
further  off  from  one  another.  After  all,  and  on  the  whole, 
the  thoughts  concerning  Jesus  Christ  were  not  very  differ- 
ent among  monophysite  Armenians  on  the  one  hand,  and 
among  Nestorian  Syrians  on  the  other. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

DONATISM 

Optatus  Milevitauus,  Be  schismate  Donatistarum.    Eibbeck,  Donatus 
u.  Augustinus^  Elberf.  1858. 

It  was  convenient  to  follow  out  to  the  decision  of  Chalcedon 
the  discussions  regarding  the  Person  of  the  Lord.  Donatism 
takes  us  a  good  way  back,  for  the  sect  originated  about 
A.D.  311.  It  takes  us  also  to  the  West.  The  forces  which 
gave  animation  and  character  to  the  Trinitarian  and  the 
Christological  controversies  had  their  home  mainly  in  the 
East.  The  importance  of  those  issues  was  recognised  in 
the  West ;  but  there  questions  about  the  method  of  salva- 
tion, and  about  the  Church  in  relation  to  it,  came  home 
with  special  force  to  Christian  minds. 

In  the  year  311  the  see  of  Carthage  became  vacant  by  the 
death  of  Mensurius,  and  a  disputed  election  followed.  A  good 
deal  of  intrigue  is  alleged  to  have  gone  forward;  but  the 
parties  in  whose  behalf  the  strings  were  pulled  neither  suc- 
ceeded in  carrying  the  election,  nor  played  any  prominent  part 
afterwards.  Eather  unexpectedly,  Csecilianus  the  deacon  was 
elected ;  and  he  was  presently  consecrated  by  Felix,  bishop  of 
Aptunga.  But  Cuecilianus  was  obnoxious  to  many  in  Carthage ; 
and  certain  Numidian  bishops,  who  conceived  that  no  steps 
ought  to  have  been  taken  in  their  absence,  protested  against 
the  whole  proceedings.  Was  Caecilianus  validly  consecrated  ? 
His  opponents  denied  it ;  and  they  formed  a  special  ground 
of  nullity  in  the  allegation  that  Felix  of  Aptunga,  who  con- 
secrated him,  had  been  a  traditor'^  in  the  recent  time  of 

^  Name  given  to  those  who  saved  themselves  in  Diocletian's  persecution  by 
delivering  np  the  sacred  books  to  be  burnt. 

40» 


406       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a..d. 

persecution.  He  had  therefore  incurred  deposition ;  all  his 
acts  were  invalid ;  Csecilianus,  after  consecration,  was  still 
no  more  than  a  deacon.  This  argument  was  supplemented 
by  the  assertion  that  Csecilianus  himself  too  had  been  a 
traditor — nay,  that  Mensurius,  his  predecessor,  had  been  so 
also.  These  allegations  may  have  had  little  or  no  found- 
ation: certainly,  repeated  investigations  are  said,  by  the 
Catholics,  to  have  ended  always  in  total  absence  of  proof. 
But  the  accusations  were  believed ;  and  the  inference  derived 
from  them  was  regarded  as  valid  by  many  eager  Carthaginian 
Christians.  The  opponents  of  Csecilianus  elected  a  certain 
Majorianus,  and  had  him  consecrated,  as  to  a  see  still  vacant. 

So  the  schism  began.  Which  of  the  two  was  to  be 
treated  as  bishop  of  Carthage,  was  the  question  that  divided 
the  church  throughout  the  province.  Those  who  held 
communion  with  Caecilianus  were  regarded  by  the  other 
side  as  sharers  in  his  sin,  as  outcast  until  they  should 
repent,  as  disabled  meanwhile  from  validly  administering 
any  Christian  ordinance.  But  all  the  churches  beyond 
the  sea  recognised  Caecilianus.  The  Emperor  Constantine, 
to  whom  in  this  year,  A.D.  312,  Italy  and  Africa  fell,  was 
applied  to  by  the  Donatists  themselves,  and  he  referred 
the  matter  to  two  committees  of  bishops  successively,  both 
of  which  decided  in  favour  of  C?ecilianus.  Also  Constantine 
himself,  on  a  final  appeal  to  him  to  examine  the  cause 
in  person,  affirmed  the  sentence  that  had  been  given  before. 
It  remained  for  the  Donatists  to  sustain  their  cause  on  the 
strength  of  their  own  judgment.  All  external  countenance, 
civil  or  ecclesiastical,  was  denied  them. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  recite  minutely  the  details  of 
the  history.  The  Donatists  were  resolute  and  fierce,  and 
neither  argument  nor  persuasion  availed  to  change  them. 
They  claimed  to  be  the  true  Church,  and  those  who  held 
communion  with  the  impure  had  simply  unchurched  them- 
selves. The  arm  of  the  State  was  called  in  by  the  Catho- 
lics, and  a  long  series  of  inconsistent  and  ill-judged  measures 
were  successively  resorted  to, — indefensible  acts  of  perse- 
cution  and   repression   being   varied  occasionally   by   weak 


313-451]  DONATISM  407 

connivance  at  Donatist  turbulence  and  excess.  At  no  time 
during  the  fourth  century  was  the  spirit  of  the  sect,  on 
the  whole,  broken,  or  their  confidence  subdued.  As  Don- 
atism  had  the  character  of  a  popular  faith  and  was  frowned 
upon  by  the  State,  popular  impulses  were  apt  to  connect 
themselves  with  it.  Troops  of  fanatical  persons  known  as 
Circumcelliones  traversed  the  country  districts,  professed 
to  protect  the  Donatists,  and  often  assailed  the  Catholics. 
It  was  one  of  the  questions  discussed,  how  far  the  Donatist 
church,  as  such,  was  responsible  for  the  existence  and  the 
operations  of  these  disturbers  of  the  peace.^ 

The  series  of  events  now  rehearsed  may  be  said  to 
exhibit  the  origin  of  Donatism.  So  contemplated,  it  does 
not  appear  worthy  of  much  respect.  But  very  often  such 
movements  represent  grave  differences  of  opinion,  or  of 
tendency,  which  have  gradually  accumulated  and  become 
intense.  Then  some  accident  determines  the  explosion. 
No  doubt  it  was  so  here.  The  Donatists  represented  strong 
convictions  widely  entertained  in  the  African  church ;  and 
their  theory  and  practice  alike  were  congenial  to  the  African 
temperament.  They  found  an  energetic  and  fearless  leader 
in  Donatus,^  who  succeeded  Majorianus  as  Donatist  bishop 
of  Carthage  in  a.d.  315. 

The  African  church,  throughout  its  history,  was  strongly 
characterised  by  a  type  of  view  and  feeling  which  may  be 
called  in  a  general  way  puritanic.  There  was  a  strong 
demand  that  religion  should  declare  itself  by  energetic 
strictnesses  and  self-denials.  Tertullian  was  in  some  respects 
a  representative  African,  and  he  may  best  be  described 
as  a  puritanical  high  churchman  ;  the  puritanism — approach- 
ing even  to  the  fifth  monarchy  type — being  quite  as  vigorous 
as  the  high  churchism.  This  type  of  character,  we  may 
believe,  was  powerfully  represented  among  the  devout  people 

*  The  Circumcelliones  represented  a  vehement  Africanism,  with  religious 
and  socialistic  inspirations,  and  organised  with  a  view  to  terrorise  opponents. 
The  Donatists,  in  their  own  way,  were  the  popular  African  church,  and  the 
Circumcelliones  were  in  sympathy  with  them  as  such. 

*  This  was  Donatus  the  Great.  There  was  another  Donatus,  of  Casae 
Nigrae. 


408       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

of  the  province ;  and  among  those  who  were  not  particularly 
devout  there  were  probably  many  who,  at  least,  judged  the 
devoutness  of  other  people  by  a  standard  which  embodied 
the  same  point  of  view.  With  this  was  probably  connected, 
further,  the  disposition  which  existed  among  African  Christ- 
ians to  cling  to  powerful  religious  individualities.  They 
were  readily  swayed  by  men  who  had  gained  their  confidence, 
as  embodying  in  an  impressive  manner  the  type  of  character 
they  were  disposed  to  venerate.  There  is  reason  to  think, 
also,  that  lively  interest  in  ecclesiastical  affairs, — readiness 
to  take  part  in  them,  and  to  take  sides  about  them, — was 
exceptionally  prevalent  among  the  Christian  plebs  in  Africa.^ 
In  particular,  the  great  thought  of  the  holiness  of 
Christ's  Church  had  laid  strong  hold  on  the  African  mind. 
This  holiness  must  be  not  merely  ceremonial  or  conven- 
tional, but  real  and  vital.  The  Church  of  Christ  is  the 
habitation  of  the  Spirit  of  grace, — the  Spirit  of  God  and 
of  Christ.  Thence  comes  its  own  blessedness,  thence  also 
its  fitness  or  ability  to  perform  the  function  by  which 
it  is  to  confer  blessings  on  the  world,  and  is  to  edify  its 
own  members.  Therefore  the  sense  of  the  Church's  peculiar 
and  characteristic  holiness,  and  its  privilege,  thence  arising, 
of  communicating  sanctifying  influence,  was  to  be  solicitously 
cherished.  Therefore,  also,  the  actual  holiness  of  the  Church 
was  to  be  carefully  watched  over  and  maintained.  The 
institute,  glorious  as  it  was,  had  been  reared  in  a  perilous 
world,  and  there  was  need  for  constant  vigilance  that  the 
canker  of  sin  might  not  corrupt  and  ruin  it.  Many  African 
Christians,  accordingly,  had  embraced  with  earnestness,  at 
an  earlier  period,  the  disciplinary  severities  of  Montanism. 
Donatism  reveals  the  same  tendencies  in  another  form. 
And  obviously,  if  the  pressure  of  the  time  (ante,  p.  289) 
was  threatening  to  flood  the  Church  with  questionable 
members,  it  might  well  seem  that  the  vigilance  ought 
now  to  be  redoubled. 

*  Illustrations  of  these  tendencies  abound  in  tlie  events  whicli  marked 
Cyprian's  episcopate.  Whatever  the  Seniores  Plebis  of  the  African  churches 
exaotly  were,  their  existence  points  in  the  direction  indicated  above. 


313-451]  DONATISM  409 

To  discuss  the  proper  place  and  worth  of  this  great 
thought  would  lead  us  too  far.  But  it  may  be  remarked 
that  it  proves  arduous  to  maintain  positive  and  worthy 
conceptions  of  what  holiness  in  the  Church  and  in  its 
members  is,  and  to  be  loyal  to  the  claims  it  really  makes. 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  it  is  easier  to  live  in  negative  than 
in  positive  conceptions, — to  fix  upon  certain  things  which 
are,  and  are  to  be  reckoned,  unholy ,  and  to  make  holiness 
consist  in  opposing  these.  This  is  the  easier  working 
method  for  any  mass  of  men ;  and  too  plainly  it  became 
the  regulative  method  of  the  African  Donatists. 

The  energy  of  the  feeling  that  a  holy  vitality,  main- 
tained by  the  Spirit  in  the  Church,  and  pervading  it,  is 
essential  to  the  discharge  of  its  functions,  appears  very 
clearly  in  the  position  sustained  so  resolutely  in  Africa,  and 
championed,  as  we  have  seen,  by  Cyprian,  that  those  who 
have  been  baptized  in  heresy  must  be  baptized  again,  because 
the  former  baptism  was  null,  through  the  defect  of  the 
minister.  The  sacrament  in  the  hands  of  the  living  Church 
confers  the  blessing; — otherwise  nothing  is  done.  When 
the  Church  administers  the  sacrament,  the  living  Spu'it  that 
is  in  the  Church,  and  in  the  Church's  minister,  passes  by 
that  channel  and  communicates  Himself  to  the  receiver. 
But  what  can  a  society  do  by  any  manipulations  if  it  be 
a  society  in  which  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  not  ?  ^ 

The  Donatists  said.  The  Church  of  Christ  is  a  living 
and  pure  society  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit  dwells ;  and  thus 
it  is  fitted  for  its  function  of  bringing  forth  children  to  God. 
This  continues  to  be  so  although  the  members  and  ministers 
of  the  Church  are  not  free  from  faihngs.  But  there  are 
certain  sins  which  are  recognised  as  rightfully  separating 
the  sinner  from  the  communion  of  the  Church.  When  a 
member  of  the  Church  falls  into  such   scandalous   sin,  he 

*  Successus  said,  **  Heretics  can  either  do  everything  or  they  can  do  nothing. 
If  they  can  baptize,  they  can  also  give  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  if  they  cannot 
give  the  Holy  Spirit,  because  they  do  not  possess  the  Holy  Spirit,  then  they 
cannot  spiritually  baptize.  We  give  our  judgment,  therefore,  that  heretics 
should  be  rebaptized."    Cypr.  0pp.  Sentt.  Epise.  16. 


410       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

dies.  He  ceases  to  be  capable  of  acting  as  a  cbannel  for 
conveying  what  the  Church  has  to  give.  He  falls  from  the 
living  Church ;  and  the  living  Church  withdraws  from  him. 
A  church  that  cleaves  to  such  a  sinner  simply  reveals  its 
own  fall.  Any  ordinances  administered  by  such  a  man  are 
to  be  rejected.  As  a  Christian,  the  man  is  null,  and  his 
ministration  is  null.  A  bishop  who  is  a  traditor,  impenitent 
and  unreconciled,  is  no  bishop.  He  is  no  longer  a  Christian. 
When  the  Church  of  Christ  lays  hold  of  men,  and  draws 
them  into  the  fellowship  of  His  life,  she  puts  forth  a  living 
hand,  not  a  dead  one.  That  is  the  decisive  principle  applic- 
able to  Csecilianus  and  men  like  him. 

It  was  not  maintained  by  the  Donatists  that  all  the 
Catholic  clergy  were  sinners  of  this  type,  nor  that  all 
Catholics  had  been  baptized  by  men  thus  tainted.  But  the 
whole  society  fell,  in  adhering  to  the  fallen.  It  upheld 
the  cause  of  the  corrupt  and  dead,  and  cherished  their 
fellowship,  as  against  the  society  which  renounced  such 
persons  and  disclaimed  them.  Of  two  societies  that  claim 
to  be  Christ's  Church,  which  is  genuine, — the  one  that 
cherishes  the  followers  of  Judas  ?  or  that  which  rejects  them  ? 

Following  out  these  principles,  the  Donatists  rebaptized 
those  who  came  over  to  them  from  the  Catholic  Church, 
holding  their  Catholic  baptism  to  have  been  null.  The 
Catholics  acted  differently.  Following  the  view  of  the 
Church  of  Eome  as  to  heretical  baptism  {ante,  p.  259),  they 
received  a  Donatist  who  wished  to  join  them,  recognising  the 
Donatist  baptism  as  valid.  On  this  the  Donatists  built 
an  argument.  They  said.  You  own  by-  your  practice  that 
we  have  the  true  baptism,  that  we  have  the  remission  of 
sins,  that  we  have  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  there  are  not  two 
conflicting  societies  in  which  remission  is  found,  in  which  the 
Holy  Spirit  dwells.  If  these  privileges,  as  you  virtually  own, 
are  ours,  they  cannot  also  be  yours.  "  Come,  therefore,  to  the 
Church,  ye  people,  and  flee  the  company  of  the  traditors."  ^ 

^  It  was  natural  for  the  Donatists  to  clinch  their  indictments  against  their 
opponents  by  maintaining  that  in  the  Catholic  Church  discipline  had  practi- 
cally failed.     The  Catholics  had  been  led  to  their  position  by  a  defective  sense 


313-451]  DONATISM  411 

Finally,  the  Donatists  found  proof  of  the  spurious  nature 
of  Catholic  Christianity  in  the  pressure  and  persecution  on 
the  part  of  the  State,  directed  against  Donatists,  which 
Catholics  approved  and  stimulated.  So  they  fulfilled  the 
Lord's  prophecy  of  a  generation  of  vipers  who  should  slay 
and  crucify  His  messengers.  The  Donatists  got  rid  of  a 
counter  argument  against  themselves,  based  on  the  wild 
treatment  of  Catholics  by  the  Circumcelliones,  by  dis- 
claiming responsibility  for  anything  wrong  which  these 
disturbers  might  have  done. 

It  should  be  recognised  that  a  genuine  concern  about 
the  purity  of  the  Church,  and  a  desire  to  do  right  to  that 
interest,  was  an  element  in  the  state  of  mind  out  of  which 
this  movement  originated.  The  appeal  to  this  sentiment 
was  the  strength  of  Donatism.  But  it  is  plain  that  the 
way  of  conceiving  the  matter — the  standard  of  judgment 
about  it  which  they  set  up — was  of  a  very  external  kind. 
And  the  exigencies  of  controversy,  in  defending  a  party 
position  inconsiderately  taken  up,  drove  them  more  and  more 
into  disreputable  sophistries.  Tor  they  themselves  could 
not  live  out  their  own  theories.  They  could  not  make 
out  the  nullity  of  Catholic  Christianity,  except  by  arguments 
which  could  be  retorted  with  fatal  effect  on  their  own.^ 

of  the  evil  of  sin,  and  the  same  proclivity  was  manifest  in  their  whole  admin- 
istration of  church  affairs.  This,  of  course,  was  a  matter  of  impression,  or  of 
allegation,  and  the  Donatists  were  not  likely  to  be  impartial  judges  in  regard 
to  it.  But  from  Augustine's  way  of  meeting  the  allegation  one  acquires  the 
impression  that  in  the  Catholic  Church  comparative  laxity  did  prevail,  and 
had  to  be  justified  or  apologised  for. 

^  The  Donatist  movement  required  for  its  defence  this  postulate,  that  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  sanctifying  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  present 
and  prevalent  throughout  the  Church,  throughout  its  ministry,  and  through- 
out its  membership,  wherever  they  are  not  banished  by  those  positive  and 
gross  transgressions  for  which  the  Church  inflicts  discipline  ;  on  the  other 
hand,  when  those  transgressions  occur,  this  spiritual  vitality  departs  from  the 
transgressors  and,  as  the  Donatists  added,  from  all  who  symbolise  with  them. 
Some  such  external  way  of  conceiving  the  boundary-line  between  the  living 
and  the  dead  was  probably  very  common  throughout  the  Church,  among 
Catholics  as  among  Donatists.  The  Donatists  made  this  conception  the  basis 
of  their  church  fellowship.  But  could  they  be  sure  that  hidden  sin  was  not 
vitiating  it  also  ?  If  they  were  to  defend  their  own  fellowship,  then  thev 
could  not  help  weakening  their  own  principle  by  silently  assuming  that,  some- 


412       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

During  the  revolt  of  Gildo,  who  maintained  himself  as 
ruler  of  the  African  province  (a.d.  392—398),  the  Donatists 
were  sheltered  from  the  pressure  of  the  imperial  laws.^  But 
after  the  restoration  of  Eoman  authority  the  situation  grew 
worse :  the  Circumcelliones  on  the  one  side,  and  the  mea- 
sures against  Donatism  on  the  other,  became  more  active, 
and  eventually,  from  about  A.D.  412,  the  sect  may  be  re- 
garded as  legally  suppressed, — that  is,  they  could  no  longer 
sustain  a  public  existence, — but  Donatism  survived  in  a  dis- 
organised condition  to  a  much  later  date.^ 

Far  the  most  important  feature  of  the  Donatist  dispute 
is  the  part  which  Augustine  took  in  it.  In  his  earlier  days, 
so  far  as  appears,  it  did  not  at  all  interest  him,  although 
Tagaste,  his  birthplace,  had  been  a  Donatist  town,  and 
became  Catholic  only  a  few  years  before  Augustine's  birth. 
But  when  he  became  an  African  ecclesiastic,  he  found 
Donatism  a  force  to  be  carefully  encountered.  When  he 
came  to  Hippo,  the  clear  majority  of  the  Christians  there 
were  Donatists ;  and  at  that  time,  he  tells  us,  no  Donatist 
would  have  baked  a  loaf  of  bread  for  a  Catholic.  He  began 
to  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  debate  three  or  four  years 
after  his  ordination  as  presbyter  (which  was  in  a.d.  392), 
and  he  prosecuted  the  discussion  in  various  forms  until  the 
predominance  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Africa  rendered 
further  effort  unnecessary. 

Augustine's  was  a  mind  perfectly  disposed  to  engage 

how  or  other,  the  fatal  transgressions  may  be  committed  by  ministers  of  the 
Church  and  yet  do  not  hinder  the  communication  of  her  life,  unless  they 
become  in  some  measure  manifest.  But  this  modification  of  their  theory 
would  have  weakened  the  attack  on  the  Catholic  fellowship.  Therefore  it  had 
to  be  withdrawn  or  veiled. 

^  During  this  time  there  may  have  been  some  oppression  of  individual 
Catholics,  and  insufficient  protection  against  the  Circumcelliones,  but  from 
the  answer  of  Augustine  to  the  first  book  of  Petilianus  it  does  not  appear  that 
the  Catholics  had  to  complain  of  much  persecution.  Near  the  end  of  Gildo's 
usurpation  one  sees,  from  Augustine's  conference  with  Fortunus  of  Tubursica 
(397),  that  apprehension  of  persecution  from  the  Catholic  side  existed  among 
the  Donatists.  And  a  few  years  after,  about  403,  symptoms  of  intense  strain 
as  between  the  parties  are  visible. 

^  Tillemont,  M&n.,  vol.  vi.,  last  chapter. 


313-4r.l]  DONATISM  413 

with  predilection  in  such  a  controversy,  and  the  position  he 
was  to  take  up  had  long  been  clear  to  him.  His  theory  of 
the  Church,  and  his  advocacy  of  Catholic  practice  in  con- 
nection with  it,  are  of  course  the  main  points.  In  addition, 
he  made  large  and  successful  use  of  the  reductio  ad 
absurdum.  For  tlie  Donatists  had  laid  hold  of  good  strong 
principles,  sufi&cient,  if  admitted,  to  make  havoc  of  the 
Catholic  positions;  but  these  Augustine  retorted  upon 
themselves  with  fatal  effect.^ 

Of  more  permanent  interest  are  the  principles  whicli 
formed  his  theory  of  the  Church. 

The  necessity  of  baptism  to  salvation  was  generally  held, 
and  Augustine  held  it.  That  necessity  was  qualified  by 
some  exceptions,  but  was  imperative  in  general.  That  men, 
not  yet  baptized,  who  suffered  death  as  martyrs,  were  in 
effect  christened  in  their  own  blood  was  everywhere  believed, 
and  Augustine  believed  it.  He  went  further,  and  admitted 
that  lack  of  baptism  would  not  be  imputed  to  those  who 
seriously  designed  to  be  baptized,  but  who,  through  no  fault 

^  See  the  books  eontr.  LiU.  Petiliani,  or  almost  any  of  the  Donatist 
writings: — e.g.  "There  have  been  traditors  among  yourselves, — how  is  the 
world  to  be  sure  that  you  have  expelled  all  of  them,  any  more  than  that  we 
have  expelled  all  ours  ? "  **  There  are  some  among  you,  as  among  us,  who  have 
received  baptism,  being  secretly  impenitent  and  living  in  sin, — why  do  you  not 
rebaptize  them  when  the  case  is  discovered  ? "  **  There  are  some  of  you  who, 
after  being  baptized,  have  gone  from  your  communion  into  other  sects  which 
you  reckon  impure.  You  say  that  by  that  step  those  persons  lost  all  that 
their  baptism  bestowed  upon  them, — why  do  you  not  baptize  them  over  again 
when  they  come  back  to  you?"  "Some  time  ago  a  party  of  your  people 
separated  from  you  under  Maximinianus ;  you  said  they  were  schismatics  ; 
you  said  they  were  separated  from  Christ  and  from  the  Spirit ;  in  that  state 
they  baptized  many  catechumens ;  by  and  by  they  came  back  to  you  in  a 
body, — why  did  you  not  rebaptize  those  converts  of  theirs,  whom,  when  they 
baptized  them,  to  use  your  own  language,  *  their  own  impure  consciences 
disabled  them  from  really  purifying '  ?"  "There  are  among  you,  as  among 
us,  for  neither  party  can  help  it,  bishops  and  presbyters  whose  lives  are  fair 
enough  to  man's  view,  but  who  in  God's  sight  are  ungodly  men.  What 
becomes  of  those  who  in  your  communion  are  baptized  by  such  men?  Are 
they  after  all  unbaptized  1 "  Points  like  these  are  pressed  with  unwearied 
pertinacity,  and  in  every  shape  rhetorical  skill  could  suggest.  On  the  whole, 
Augustine  treats  his  Donatist  opponents  with  a  fair  measure  of  courtesy  ;  but 
now  and  then  his  contempt  for  their  dialectical  weakness  breaks  through  in  a 
sentence  or  two  of  satirical  banter,  e.g.  c.  LiU.  Petiliani,  i.  c.  v. 


414       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

of  their  own,  died  before  the  administration.^  But  he  would 
not  have  admitted  an  exception,  e.g.  in  the  case  of  a  member 
of  the  Society  of  Friends,  persuaded  that  baptism  with  water 
ought  not  now  to  be  administered. 

Baptism,  then,  is  necessary ;  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
not  inseparably  joined  to  the  blessings  which  it  holds  forth, 
i.e.  to  remission  and  regeneration.  "  Baptism  is  one  thing, 
conversion  of  the  heart  is  another :  man's  salvation  is  made 
complete  through  the  two  together."  ^  A  man  may  be 
baptized,  and  yet  may  be  destitute  of  the  spiritual  blessing. 
Since  this  is  so,  Augustine  finally  owns  it  to  be  difficult  to 
say  what  the  intrinsic  effect  of  the  outward  administration  is.^ 
It  must  be  something  very  important,  but  what  ?  Out  of  this 
"  what "  was  developed  the  doctrine  of  sacramental  character. 

However,  whatever  it  does,  and  whatever  the  manner  of 
its  working,  the  efficacy  of  baptism  in  no  degree  depends  on 
the  administrator.  If  in  substance  it  is  administered  accord- 
ing to  Christ's  institution,  then  it  is  Christ's  ordinance,  and 
whatever  is  done  by  it,  He  does  it.  The  administrator  may 
be  a  secretly  bad  man,  or  a  man  known  to  be  bad,  he  may 
be  a  schismatic  or  a  heretic.  The  validity  of  the  sacrament 
is  not  affected.  It  is  wrong  to  seek  Christian  ordinances 
from  heretics,  but  even  in  their  hands  baptism  is  Christ's 
baptism.  Much  more,  the  believer  within  the  Catholic 
Church  is  not  called  upon  to  burden  his  conscience  with 
questions  about  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  baptizer. 
"  Let  the  man's  whole  hope  be  in  Christ ;  for  it  is  written. 
Cursed  is  he  that  putteth  his  trust  in  man.  It  is  always 
Christ  that  justifies  the  ungodly ;  it  is  always  from  Christ 
that  faith  is  given ;  Christ  always  is  the  origin  of  the 
regenerate  man,  and  the  head  of  the  Church."  * 

^  This  position  is  avowed  in  the  writings  against  Donatism.  It  is  not 
obviously  consistent  with  the  position  about  unbaptized  infants  maintained 
in  the  Pelagian  controversy,  but  it  is  possible  to  hold  both. 

2  De  Ba;'t.  iv.  c.  xxv.  ^  Ibid.  iv.  c.  xxiii. 

*  O.  Pet.  i.  e.  vi.  As  baptism  thus  administered,  even  if  in  heresy,  is  still 
Christ's,  so  Augustine  boldly  asserts  it  is  still  the  Church's.  This  meets 
Cyprian's  argument  that  only  the  Church  can  be  the  true  mother  of  Christians. 
See  de  Bapt.  i.  c.  xv. 


313-451]  DONATISM  416 

Baptism  administered  in  the  heretical  sects  is  effectually 
and  really  baptism.  But  as  outward  baptism,  administered 
in  the  best  of  circumstances,  is  not  always  accompanied  by 
the  spiritual  blessings,  so  in  these  circumstances  it  never  is. 
Baptism,  for  instance,  is  for  remission  of  sins ;  but  in  the 
case  of  a  man  baptized  in  a  heretical  sect,  either  that 
remission  never  rea^ches  him,  or  if  it  comes,  it  immediately 
departs  again.  For  Augustine  held  the  unity  of  the  external 
Church :  there  is  one  authentic  society,  to  be  in  communion 
with  which  is  necessary  to  salvation.  Outside  of  it  spiritual 
life  either  does  not  exist  or,  if  it  comes,  it  presently  dies  again. 

The  Donatists  held  the  same  doctrine,  but  they 
grounded  it  and  they  applied  it  differently.  They  argued 
on  the  necessity  of  being  in  external  organic  union  with 
that  which  they  held  to  be  the  living  society.  Hence  the 
interposition,  in  ministration  of  baptism,  of  a  scandalous 
ecclesiastic  breaks  the  conductor  by  which  the  electric 
influence  should  pass,  and  the  man  remains  unbaptized  and 
dead.  Augustine's  thinking  was  on  other  lines :  the  out- 
ward condition,  baptism,  may  be  fulfilled  whenever  and 
however  administered.  Also  the  inward  conditions  may  be 
brought  to  pass  under  the  influence  of  the  Spirit,  whatever 
agency  brings  the  gospel  to  bear  upon  the  soul,  e.g.  in  a 
heretical  meeting.  Yet  there  is  one  external  society,  to  be 
in  communion  with  which  is  essential  to  life  and  salvation. 
And  Augustine  sought  to  find  a  reason  for  this  necessity, 
which  should  be  moral  and  not  mechanical.  It  had  already 
been  advanced  by  Cyprian ;  ^  and  the  later  writer  worked  it 
skilfully  into  his  own  system.  He  who  forsakes  the  Church, 
or  who  fails  to  reunite  himself  with  the  Church,  breaks 
charity.  He  denies  the  very  central  grace.  He  takes  up  a 
position  of  pride,  ceusoriousness,  ill-will.  He  refuses  to 
bear  the  burden,  and  to  be  patient  with  the  offences  which, 
in  the  Church,  Christ  and  His  people  endure  together.  A 
man  may  be  truly  converted  outside  of  the  Church ;  but  the 
effect  of  that  conversion  will  be  to  bring  him  penitently 
back  to  the  Church.  If  he  withstand  that  tendency,  he 
*  De  Unitate,  c.  9. 15. 


416       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

withstands  the  grace  that  saves,  and  chooses  to  abide  in 
death.  "  When  it  is  said  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  given  only 
in  the  Catholic  Church,  I  suppose  our  ancestors  {i.e.  Cyprian 
and  his  fellow  bishops)  meant  that  we  should  understand 
thereby  what  the  Apostle  says, — '  because  the  love  of  God  is 
shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  is  given 
to  us/  This  very  love  is  that  which  is  wanting  in  all  who 
are  cut  off  from  the  communion  of  the  Catholic  Church ;  and 
for  want  of  it,  though  they  *  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men 
and  angels  ...  it  profiteth  them  nothing.'  This  is  the 
charity  which  covereth  the  multitude  of  sins.  And  it  is  the 
especial  gift  of  the  Catholic  unity  and  peace."  ^  Obviously 
the  assumption  here  made  is  both  presumptuous  and  pre- 
carious. It  is  that  outward  separation  necessarily  and 
always  implies  an  inward  revolt  from  the  love  of  God,  and 
an  uncharitable  renunciation  of  what  is  due  to  the  brethren. 
That  is  a  fatally  wide  assumption,  and  in  trying  to  make  it 
good  Cyprian  and  Augustine,  and  all  who  follow  them,  have 
been  obliged  themselves  to  sin  against  charity  and  justice. 

But  the  principle  which  Augustine  wields  with  the 
greatest  energy  of  all  in  this  department,  is  that  of  the 
distinction  between  the  living  and  the  dead,  between  the 
godly  and  the  ungodly,  in  the  Catholic  Church  itself.  No 
Christian,  perhaps,  had  ever  denied  that  distinction ;  and  no 
party  claiming  the  position  and  privileges  of  the  Church 
could  pretend  that  there  were  no  ungodly  persons  among 
themselves,  however  much  they  might  be  disposed  to  de- 
nounce the  impurity  of  other  communions.  But  Augustine 
far  more  intensely  apprehended  the  significance  of  that 
great  unseen  perpetual  cleft  in  the  Church  of  Christ  as  she 
is  embodied  in  the  earth.  And  he  connected  his  recognition 
of  it  with  a  far  more  vivid  conception  of  the  essential 
contrast — of  what,  to  the  Lord's  eye,  makes  the  differ- 
ence— between  the  godly  man  and  the  ungodly.  We 
have  seen  him  contending  that  whatever  is  conferred  by 
mere  authentic  administration  of  sacraments,  may  be  con- 
ferred and  may  be  received  by  those  who  are  strangers  to 
*  De  Bapi,  iii.  c  xri. 


313-461]  DONATISM  417 

tlie  spiritual  blessings  for  the  sake  of  which  sacraraenta 
were  instituted.^  But  he  carries  out  this  argument  by 
maintaining  that  persons  so  situated  are  all  of  them  foreign 
to  Christ's  Church,  aliens  and  strangers,  as  truly  as  are  the 
heretics  and  the  schismatics  themselves.  They  may  be  in 
unchallenged  communion  with  the  Catholic  Church,  they 
may  be  presbyters  or  bishops,  they  may  be  in  high  repute 
for  piety  with  men;  but  in  truth  they  are  not  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  and  that  shall  be  made  plain  in  due  time. 
No  part  of  Augustine's  argument  is  enforced  with  such 
energy  as  this.  Cyprian,  maintaining  the  nullity  of  heretical 
baptism,  had  argued  that  heretics  are  enemies  and  anti- 
christs. Therefore  their  pretended  ordinances  are  null, 
and  their  disciples,  when  they  return  to  the  Catholic  unity, 
should  be  baptized  with  the  one  baptism,  that  they  may  be 
made  friends  and  Christians.  "  The  very  same,"  rejoins 
Augustine,  "may  be  said  of  all  unrighteous  men  who  are 
in  the  communion  of  the  Catholic  Church.  They  only 
really  come  to  the  Church  who  pass  to  Christ  from  the 
party  of  the  devil,  who  build  on  the  rock,  who  are  incor- 
porated with  the  dove,  who  are  placed  in  safety  in  the 
garden  enclosed  and  fountain  sealed;  but  none  are  found 
there  who  live  contrary  to  the  precepts  of  Christ,  whatever 
they  may  seem  to  be."  ^  "  Heretics  and  schismatics  are  only 
more  openly,  not  more  really,  outside  of  the  Church  which 
is  glorious,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing."  ^ 
Cyprian  had  said  that  heretics  might  baptize,  if  they  could 
be  shown  to  be  "  devoted  to  the  Church,  and  appointed  in 
the  Church."  "But  neither,"  says  Augustine,  "are  they 
devoted  to  the  Church  who  seem  to  be  within,  yet  live 
contrary  to  Christ,  acting  against  His  commandments  :  they 
do  not  in  any  way  belong  to  that  Church  which  He  so 
purifies  by  the  washing  of  water  as  to  present  it  to  Himself 
a  glorious  Church  without  spot  or  wrinkle.  Now,  if  so,  they 
are  not  in  the  Church  of  which  it  is  said.  My  dove  is  but 
one,  she  is  the  only  one  of  her  mother."  * 

^  See  also  c.  Pet.  ii.  cap.  104  fin.  *  De  Bapt.  vii.  c.  xli. 

•  Ihid.  iii.  c.  xviii  *  Ibid.  iv.  c.  iii. 

27 


418       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

It  is  one  thing  to  admit  this,  every  sect  meanwhile 
trying  to  minimise  its  own  concern  in  it;  it  is  another 
thing  to  give  effect  to  it  in  the  vigorous  manner  of  Augus- 
tine. It  tended  to  dispel  the  fatal  confusion  between  the 
inward  and  the  outward  in  Christianity ;  all  the  more  be- 
cause Augustine  pointed  out  so  vigorously  the  vital  peculi- 
arities of  Christian  life  as  distinguished  from  all  mere 
methodism  of  Christian  living.  A  tendency  was  widely 
prevalent  to  cherish  large  and  vague  assumptions  as  to  the 
Christian  benefit  that  might  be  conceived  to  arise  in  virtue 
of  being  in  the  authentic  Church,  even  to  careless  people,  if 
they  were  not  chargeable  with  gross  offences.  And  Augus- 
tine, of  course,  held  that  to  be  even  outwardly  in  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Catholic  Church  was  a  privilege  as  well  as  a 
duty.  "  The  tares  that  are  within  may  be  converted  into 
wheat  more  easily  than  the  tares  that  are  without."  Nay, 
there  are  sentences  ^  in  which  he  seems  to  admit  the  idea 
of  salvation,  in  the  Church,  for  a  class  of  persons  who  are 
not  quite  in  inward  fellowship  with  the  Lord,  but  who  have 
their  faces  turned  that  way.  In  general,  however,  the 
vigorous  wielding  of  the  great  distinction  now  in  view 
unquestionably  was  fitted  to  press  home  the  conviction 
that  nothing  will  avail  us,  unless  there  be  present  that 
regeneration  which  he  describes  as  "  being  renovated  from 
the  corruption  of  the  old  man."  ^ 

One  way  in  which  Augustine  identified  that  one  Catholic 
communion  which  in  his  view  contains,  embodies,  and  repre- 
sents the  true  Church,  though  it  is  not  identical  with  it,  is 
to  point  to  the  extent  of  the  Catholic  Church  as  spreading 
over  the  whole  world.  This  is  a  great  point  against  the 
Donatists.  He  pleads,  in  connection  with  it,  all  the  promises 
which  declare  that  the  world  shall  be  Christ's,  that  the 
kingdom  shall  be  visible,  as  a  city  set  on  a  hill,  and  the  like. 
Petilian,  speaking  of  Catholic  persecution,  says,  "You  cry 
Peace,  Peace,  but  where  is  your  peace  ?  "  Augustine  replies, 
"  If  you  ask  where  peace  is  to  be  found,  open  your  eyes  to 
see  the  city  which  cannot  be  hidden,  because  it  is  built  on  a 
1  De  Bapt.  i.  15,  iii.  18.  ^  ^^  j^  q^  ^i. 


313-451]  DONATISM  419 

hill,  and  the  mountain  which  grows  out  of  a  small  stone  and 
fills  the  whole  earth.  But  when  the  same  question  is  asked  of 
you,  what  will  you  say  ?  Will  you  show  the  party  of  Donatus, 
unknown  to  the  countless  nations  to  whom  Christ  is  known  ? 
That,  surely,  is  not  the  city  which  cannot  be  hid ;  and  whence 
is  this  but  because  it  is  not  founded  on  the  mountain  ?  "  ^ 

The  treatment  of  the  Donatists  varied  with  the  im- 
pulses and  the  difficulties  of  the  Government.  On  the  other 
side,  the  Donatists,  while  they  complained  bitterly  of  per- 
secution, seem  to  have  been  ready  enough  to  welcome  the 
aid  of  State  force  when  the  possibility  of  such  a  thing 
seemed  to  open ;  and  if  the  CathoHcs  may  be  believed,  they 
showed  no  disposition  to  restrain  the  violence  of  the  Cir- 
cumcelliones,  although  the  more  quiet  and  settled  Donatists 
disclaimed  responsibility  for  those  proceedings.  Augustine, 
indeed,  declares  that  the  Catholics  would  not  have  found  it 
possible  to  live  in  the  country  districts  if  the  Donatists  in 
the  towns  had  not  been  treated  as  hostages  for  their  security. 

At  length,  about  A.D.  410,  edicts  were  issued  by  Hono- 
rius,  authorising  the  suppression  of  the  sect  by  force,  and 
from  that  time  measures  for  the  purpose  were  systematically 
followed  out.  Augustine  had  originally  been  against  this 
course.  He  had  maintained  that  pains  and  penalties  ought 
not  to  be  applied  in  order  to  bring  dissidents  to  the  Church. 
He  had  claimed  only  that  insult  and  outrage,  inflicted  on 
Catholics  by  Donatists,  should  be  put  down ;  and  this  he 
supposed  could  be  effected  by  fining  prominent  Donatists 
whenever  injury  was  done  to  Catholics.  But  the  Govern- 
ment, as  we  have  seen,  under  other  advice,  adopted  the  more 
stringent    course.      And   Augustine,    observing    that    these 

*  C.  Pet.  ii.  xiii.  This  was  cogent  reasoning  when,  by  the  conditions  of 
argument,  accepted  on  both  sides,  one  or  other,  Donatists  or  Catholics,  must 
be,  and  be  exclusively,  Christ's  only  Church  on  earth, — not  to  speak  of  the 
precarious  grounds  on  which  the  Donatists  unchurched  the  Christians  of  the 
whole  world.  But  one  does  not  feel  sure  that  Augustine  himself  would  have 
used  the  argument  so  confidently  had  the  case  been  that  of  a  part  of  Christen- 
dom, which,  without  unchurching  the  rest,  saw  fit  to  take  a  diverging  view  of 
some  point  of  doctrine  or  practice,  even  if  the  effect  were  that  commuuion  was 
suspended  on  both  sides. 


420       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

measiu'es  seemed  to  be  successful, — for  he  tells  us  that  great 
numbers  of  Donatists  came  over,  and  that  they  often  con- 
fessed they  were  glad  to  be  rid  of  their  old  connection, 
though  they  would  hardly  have  quitted  it  of  their  own 
accord, — became  the  advocate  of  persecution.^  In  support 
of  it  he  quoted  the  Scriptures  bearing  on  the  ministry  due 
from  kings  to  the  cause  of  God,  and  he  elevated  into  a 
mournful  historical  significance  the  text,  "  Compel  them  to 
come  in."  He  thus  became,  by  precept  and  example,  the 
supporter  of  a  principle  that  is  really  diabolical ;  and  he  gave 
it  an  authority  for  the  after  age  which  the  Keformation 
itself  did  not  bring  into  question.  It  was  the  more  easy  for 
him  to  be  misled,  because  in  certain  circumstances  persecu- 
tion works  with  great  success  of  a  certain  kind;  and  the 
case  of  the  Donatists  is  an  illustration.  When  men  have 
driven  their  own  principle  to  extravagance, — when  they  have 
wearied  themselves  with  the  monotony  of  their  unreasonable- 
ness, and  when  they  have  begun  to  feel  the  pressure  of 
counter  principles  more  profoundly  conceived  and  more  skil- 
fully applied, — then  sharp  and  resolute  persecution  some- 
times precipitates  a  crisis,  and  people  prove  not  unwilling  to 
be  driven  into  the  new  fold,  though  they  would  be  slow  to 
move  spontaneously.  It  appeared  to  be  so  here,  and  yet  it 
is  questionable  how  far  it  really  was  so.  Enough  of  pathetic 
indignation  and  despair  appeared  among  the  Donatists  to 
have  suggested  a  doubt  concerning  the  measures  which  led 
to  these  results.  They  did  not  suggest  such  doubt  to 
Augustine,  who  was  capable  of  a  certain  hardness  when  his 
religious  logic  had  sanctioned  a  line  for  him  to  walk  in.  But 
the  storm  which  burst  on  Africa  as  his  life  was  closing  was 
not  improbably  a  result  in  some  degree,  and  so  a  punishment, 
of  that  mistaken  policy.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
progress  of  the  Vandals  was  facilitated  by  a  spirit  of  sedition 
against  Eoman  rule  which  was  abroad  in  Africa.  And  into 
this  there  entered  doubtless,  as  an  element,  the  hatred  and 
revenge   of   the   trampled   and  humiliated  Donatists.^ 

^  De  Oorrectione  Donatistarum. 

'  Far  too  much  has  been  made  of  the  conduct  of  the  Circumcelliones  at 


313-451]  DONATISM  421 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  at  all  events 
Augustiue  was  not  slack  in  employing  more  legitimate  means 
of  persuasion.  Preaching,  writing,  private  conference,  public 
debate — he  was  eager  for  them  all,  and  into  all  he  threw 
his  heart  and  his  genius  as  well  as  his  debating  power.  He 
had  long  been  using  these  means  ere  he  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  co-operation  of  persecution  was  a  desirable 
agency  in  addition. 

This  legitimate  zeal,  besides  exhausting  itself  in  various 
forms  of  prose,  overflowed  into  verse.  Augustine  as  a  rhe- 
torician had  practised  classic  versification  and  set  many  a 
theme  for  such  verse  to  pupils;  but  that  style  would  not 
have  suited  the  Africans.  Something  more  fitted  to  the 
genius  of  the  people  and  of  the  Latin  language  seemed  to 
be  required,  and  the  cadence  and  swing  of  the  verses 
written  by  Augustine  on  this  subject  were  no  doubt  suggested 
by  what  he  believed  to  be  the  demands  of  the  popular  ear. 
They  may  be  regarded,  therefore,  as  illustrating  the  conditions 
under  which,  as  the  lower  empire  was  merged  in  barbarian 
kingdoms,  the  classic  metres  gave  way,  for  religious  purposes, 
to  styles  of  verse  governed  by  quite  different  laws.^ 

affording  &n  explanation  of,  and  so  an  apology  for,  the  course  taken  by 
Augustine.  This  will  not  do.  Certainly  the  conduct  of  the  Circumcelliones 
called  for  counter  measures ;  and,  no  doubt,  Augustine,  in  arguing  with  the 
Donatists  and  dealing  with  their  complaints  of  pesecution,  casts  up  to  them 
the  violence  of  the  Circumcelliones  as  a  quid  pro  quo.  But  Augustine  dis- 
tinguished perfectly  between  merely  suppressing  the  Circumcelliones  and 
oppressing  the  Donatists  generally.  He  knew  very  well,  also,  that  multitudes 
of  Donatists  were  in  no  sense  Circumcelliones.  He  advisedly  argues  the  case 
on  grounds  which  would  equally  apply  if  no  Catholic  had  ever  been  assailed. 
He  arrived  at  this  view,  approved  of  it  in  practice,  and  defended  it  in  debate. 
Undoubtedly  the  complex  case  did  present,  on  the  Donatist  side,  so  much  of 
violence  and  unreasonableness  as  to  afford  a  palliation.  But  supposing  the 
case  to  have  been  otlierwise,  I  doubt  whether  Augustine,  arriving  at  his 
conclusion  by  the  line  of  argument  he  describes,  would  have  flinched  merely 
because  the  heretics  were  inolTensive. 

^  0pp.  vol.  ix. ,  Psalmus  contra  partem  Donati.  None  of  the  later  Christian 
hymns  were  modelled  on  these  rough  verses  of  Augustine  ;  but  the  latter 
resemble  the  former  in  so  far  as  feet  dependent  on  quantity  are  superseded  by 
accented  measures.  In  fact  the  swing  of  Augustine's  verse  reminds  one  of 
some  of  our  own  Saxon  rhymes. 


CHAPTER    XXV 

Ecclesiastical  Personages  of  Fourth  Century 

1.  EusEBius  was  bishop  of  Csesarea  from  a.d.  313  to  340. 
He  may  have  been  a  native  of  that  city,  and  was  born 
probably  about  A.D.  260.  He  became  celebrated  as  the 
most  learned  Christian  of  his  time,  and  as  the  most  pro- 
ductive writer.  He  is  the  father  of  Church  history,  and  has 
preserved  notices  of  facts,  books,  and  personages  which,  but 
for  his  labours,  must  have  remained  in  darkness.  But  he 
laboured  in  many  fields.  Bishop  Lightfoot  (in  the  Diet 
Christ.  Biog.  ii.  p.  319)  has  furnished  a  minute  discussion  of 
his  work  under  the  heads.  Historical,  Apologetic,  Critical  and 
Exegetical,  Doctrinal,  Orations,  Letters  :  numbering  forty-one 
distinct  articles.  Csesarea  had  become  the  seat  of  a  notable 
library;  so  had  Jerusalem,  which  was  not  far  off;  and  both 
furnished  Eusebius  with  copious  opportunity  for  study. 
Csesarea  had  also  been  the  home  of  Origen  in  his  later 
years ;  and  Eusebius  was  associated  with  Pamphilus,  the 
scholar  and  champion  of  Origen,  in  defending  the  reputation 
of  that  great  master. 

Eusebius  signed  the  Nicene  Creed  as  finally  adjusted, 
but  not  without  some  difficulty.  He  certainly  was  in  friendly 
relations  with  leading  Arians,  and  would  have  spared  them 
the  pressure  of  the  Nicene  clauses.  As  to  his  own  belief, 
he  stood  nearest  to  those  semi-Arians  who  deprecated  the 
Nicene  phraseology,  but  could  not  be  convicted  of  Arianism. 
He  inherited  the  subordinationism  of  Origen,  and  regarded 
a  leaning  in  this  direction  as  the  necessary  safeguard  against 
Sabellianism.  The  phrases  in  the  creed  which  created  diffi- 
culty for  him  were  ofioovaio^  and  e/c  t^9  ovaias  tov  irarpo^i. 


A.D.  313-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  423 

Lightfoot  properly  points  to  the  personal  respect  with  which 
he  seems  to  have  been  regarded  by  his  contemporaries.  His 
most  important  works  were,  perhaps,  his  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory in  ten  books  ;  his  life  of  Constantine  in  five  ;  his  Chronica 
(Chronology  of  General  History) ;  his  Martyrs  of  Palestine 
(in  two  recensions,  both  from  his  own  hand) ;  his  Prceparatio 
and  Bemonstratio  Evangelica\  his  works  against  Marcellus 
of  Ancyra ;  and  his  Topica,  or  names  of  Places  in  Scripture. 
Probably  half  of  what  he  is  known  to  have  written  has 
perished. 

Eusebius  was  one  of  the  most  cultivated  men  of  his 
time,  and  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  he  was  personally 
attractive  and  benignant.  He  was  greatly  valued  by  the 
Emperor  Constantine,  whom  he  in  turn  all  but  worshipped. 
But  while  he  occupies  a  place  among  the  foremost  in 
ecclesiastical  literature,  he  does  not  rank  so  high  in  mental 
power  or  force.  It  has  been  remarked  that  while  his  con- 
ception of  what  his  greater  works  ought  to  be  is  sometimes 
grand  and  striking,  the  execution  falls  short.  Moreover,  his 
Greek  style  has  something  harsh  and  artificial  about  it.  His 
fidelity  as  an  ecclesiastical  historian  has  been  successfully 
defended.  As  to  the  conception  of  the  Church  on  which 
he  proceeded,  see  the  History  of  Ecclesiastical  History y  by 
F.  C.  Baur.^  He  was  writing  with  unfailing  vigour  down 
to  the  end  of  his  life. 

Among  bishops  of  the  same  name  (and  they  were  many) 
Eusebius  of  Caesarea  is  chiefly  to  be  distinguished  from 
Eusebius  of  Nicodemia,  the  ecclesiastical  leader  of  the 
Arians  during  the  first  half  of  the  controversy  (died  bishop 
of  Constantinople,  A.D.  342).  Bishops  of  the  same  name  at 
the  Cappadocian  Caesarea,  at  Samosata,  and  at  Sebaste  occur 
a  little  later. 

2.  Athanasius  was  born  probably  in  the  closing  years 
of  the  third  century.  He  was  already  a  deacon  at  the  time 
of  the  council  of  Nica^a  (a.d.  325),  the  trusted  attendant  and 
the  adviser  of  his  bishop  (Alexander).  In  three  years  after 
(A.D.  328),  in  spite  of  the  antipathy  of  the  Arians,  which 
A  Mpoch&n,  Tiib.  1852. 


424       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       U-B. 

he  had  already  earned,  he  was  elevated  to  the  episcopal 
chair  of  Alexandria.  This,  in  the  extent  of  its  immediate 
or  direct  jurisdiction,  was  then  perhaps  the  most  arduous 
see  in  Christendom.  For  the  whole  period  during  which 
he  occupied  it,  Athanasius  had  to  bear  the  strain  of  the 
Arian  controversy.  He  died  in  A.D.  373;  and  of  the 
forty-five  years  of  his  episcopate,  twenty  were  spent  in 
exile;  five  times  he  was  driven  from  his  flock,  always 
returning  again  amid  enthusiastic  welcomes. 

A  legend  of  his  boyhood  (it  represented  him  as  having 
been  baptized  in  play  by  his  companions,  and  that  the 
bishop  held  it  valid);  two  or  three  stories  of  his  atti- 
tude in  the  various  trying  conjunctures  of  his  long  life, — 
all  significant  of  courage  and  resource;  a  note  of  his  ap- 
pearance— he  was  small  of  stature,  but  his  countenance 
was  dignified  and  impressive; — these  are  nearly  all  the 
minor  personal  details  that  have  been  preserved.  The  rest 
must  be  gathered  from  the  survey  of  his  work.  It  is 
obvious  that  he  came  early  under  the  influences  connected 
with  church  life,  and  that  he  developed  promptly  the 
aptitudes  which  it  requires.  His  capacity  for  theological 
thought  found  its  earliest  exercise  on  the  place  and 
function  to  be  ascribed  to  Christ  the  Saviour  in  relation  to 
God  and  man ;  ^  that  was  the  source  of  his  teaching  on  the 
question  which  occupied  his  life.  In  defending  his  position 
he  gave  abundant  evidence  of  intellectual  resource  and 
skill.  But  the  grasp  with  which  he  held  it  through  all 
turns  of  debate,  and  the  mastery  with  which  resistance  and 
concession  alike  were  brought  into  play  in  sustaining  it, 
reveal  character  and  will  even  more  than  intellect.  Athan- 
asius possessed  the  eye  for  men  and  for  affairs,  and  the 
purpose  to  make  all  his  resources  tell  for  the  cause  he 
served,  which  are  the  main  elements  of  statesmanship ; — in 
his  case  statesmanship  sustained  by  faith,  and  therefore 
never  owning  or  accepting  defeat. 

He  was  not  understood  to  possess,  like  Origen,  the 
learning  due  to  enormous  reading ;  the  circumstances  of  his 
*  De  Ineamatione  (wiitten  before  the  Arian  controversy). 


3i3-45ll  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  425 

life  forbade  it.  Nor  was  he  a  religious  genius  like  Augus- 
tine. His  knowledge  and  his  range  of  religious  insight  and 
sympathy  were,  no  doubt,  adequate  to  the  representation  of 
a  great  cause,  and  have  commanded  the  respect  of  theolo- 
gians down  to  our  time.  But  Athanasius  was  most  of  all 
a  commanding  personality:  one  who  impressed,  controlled, 
and  mastered  men ;  one  whom  his  followers  enthusiastically 
trusted,  and  whom  his  enemies  feared  and  hated. 

Something  may  be  learned  from  the  accusations  with 
which  his  opponents  assailed  him.  What  they  chiefly 
imputed  to  him  was  ambition,  self-assertion  amounting 
to  treason,  violent  treatment  of  his  enemies  or  of  those 
whom  he  chose  to  regard  as  offenders.  The  impression 
we  receive  is  of  a  character  decisive,  severe,  resolute, — 
which  would  not  trifle  with  church  power  or  church  re- 
sponsibilities. In  that  age  of  many  inconsistencies  he  very 
likely  stretched  his  power  in  order  to  suppress  current  abuses ; 
and  he  was  not  gentle  to  schismatics  like  the  Meletians, 
who  perplexed  the  situation  and  added  to  its  difficulties.^ 

He  did  not  quite  live  to  see  the  result  which  was  to 
reward  his  efforts  and  sacrifices ;  but  he  saw  the  begin- 
ning of  that  memorable  close.  And  he  left  behind  him  an 
impression  of  consistent  greatness  hardly  paralleled  in  the 
annals  of  the  Church. 

The  supernaturalness  of  Christianity,  as  it  was  repre- 
sented in  Christian  faith,  so  also  claimed  to  be  embodied 
in  forms  of  Christian  devotion  and  attainment.  Athanasius 
was  in  the  fullest  sympathy  with  this  feeling,  and  with  the 
practices  which  it  dictated.  He  was  himself  an  ascetic ;  he 
enthusiastically  sustained  the  claims  of  the  monastic  life, 
and  his  influence  did  much  to  recommend  it  in  the  West. 
The  monks  of  Egypt  were  his  friends  and  allies.  Among 
them  he  found  refuge  when  cities  were  no  longer  safe  for 
him,  and  he  could  count  securely  on  their  support.  His 
writings   commemorate   this   alliance.^      But   the   most  re- 

^  Compare  his  outburst  against  the  Emperor  Constantius  in  the  Historia 
Avian,  ad  Monachos. 

^  Hist.  Arianorum  ad  Moruichos* 


426       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.G. 

markable  monument  of  Athanasius'  sympathy  for  asceticism 
is  his  life  of  St.  Anthony.  The  authorship  has  been 
questioned,  naturally  enough ;  for  the  world  of  diablerie 
and  wonder  to  which  it  introduces  the  reader  seems  in- 
compatible with  the  greatness  and  the  wisdom  of  the  Father 
of  Orthodoxy.  But  the  evidence  is  not  to  be  got  over. 
And  this  must  be  said  further :  if  the  reader  can  assume 
for  the  moment  that  the  strange  stories  were  realities  for 
Athanasius  and  for  Anthony,  then  he  will  be  touched  by 
the  gleams  of  good  sense,  of  right  feeling,  of  Christian 
humanity  and  kindness  which  come  out,  sometimes  in  the 
strangest  associations. 

The  most  important  works  of  Athanasius  are  his  tracts 
de  Incarnatione,  Epistola  de  Niccenis  Decretis,  Historia 
Arianorum  ad  Monachos,  Orationes  adversus  Arianos,  and 
Epistola  de  Synodis.  The  life  of  Anthony  has  been  men- 
tioned already. 

3.  Three  notable  persons  group  themselves  for  the 
purposes  of  Church  history  as  the  three  Cappadocians. 
Basil  (A.D.  329-379)  and  Gregory  of  Nyssa  (a.d.  336-395) 
were  brothers;  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  (a.d.  326  ?-390)  was 
the  comrade  of  Basil  during  a  prolonged  student-life,  and 
was  his  faithful  friend  in  after  years.  All  were  distinguished 
defenders  of  the  Church's  faith  by  tongue  and  pen ;  while 
Basil  attained  additional  eminence  as  an  ecclesiastic,  and 
Gregory  Nazianzen  as  an  orator  and  poet. 

The  grandmother  of  Basil  was  Macrina,  a  devout  lady 
of  Neo-Csesarea.  With  her  husband  she  suffered  during  the 
later  persecutions,  living  for  years  in  poverty  and  conceal- 
ment. But  the  family  possessed  extensive  landed  property, 
which  they  resumed  when  the  persecution  passed  away. 
Their  son  Basil,  who  studied  law,  married  Emmelia  (whose 
father  had  suffered  in  the  persecution),  and  had  ten  children, 
of  whom  Macrina,  Basil  of  Csesarea,  Naucratius,  Gregory  of 
Nyssa,  and  Peter  (who  became  bishop  of  Sebaste)  are  known 
to  us  by  name.  The  elder  sister,  Macrina,  seems  to  have 
been  the  good  genius  of  the  family.  She  was  led  eventually 
to  gather  around  her,  at  the  family  residence  of  Annesi,  a 


813-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  427 

company  of  devout  women  who  lived  a  regulated  religious 
life;  and  here  she  died  in  A.D.  380.  Her  brother  Gregory 
of  Nyssa  was  present,  and  has  recorded  the  experience  of 
her  dymg  hours. 

Basil,  who  stood  next  to  Macrina  in  the  family,  aimed 
at  intellectual  and  literary  eminence,  probably  proposing  to 
follow  his  father,  who  had  combined  high  Christian  char- 
acter with  eminence  as  an  advocate  and  rhetorician.  Leav- 
ing Caesarea  about  the  same  time  as  his  older  friend, 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  Basil  set  out  for  Constantinople,  while 
Gregory  proceeded  by  Palestine  to  Alexandria.  They  met 
again  at  Athens,  where  Julian  (afterwards  the  Apostate) 
was  also  pursuing  his  education.  After  long  studies  under 
various  masters,  Basil  returned  to  Cappadocia  at  the  end 
of  A.D.  355.  He  came  back  elated  with  his  own  superiority 
as  a  man  of  exceptional  cultivation ;  his  reputation  in  foreign 
schools  reached  his  native  land  before  him,  and  he  was 
provided  with  abundant  opportunities,  which  he  willingly 
embraced,  for  exhibiting  his  oratorical  and  other  attain- 
ments. It  was  Macrina  who  confronted  him  with  the 
question  as  to  what  was  to  be,  what  deserved  to  be,  his 
aim  in  life ;  and  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  family  to 
which  he  had  returned  drove  the  question  home.  The 
result  was  a  strong  recoil  from  the  worldly  wisdom  he  had 
rated  so  high,  and  a  resolution  to  live  a  life  devoted  to  God. 
Probably  about  this  time  Basil  was  baptized.  He  spent 
about  a  year  in  visiting  societies  of  recluses  in  Palestine, 
Egypt,  etc.,  and  finally  chose  a  retreat  near  his  sister 
at  Annesi,  but  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river  Iris. 
Gregory  of  Nazianzus  was  induced  to  join  him  there,  but 
he  soon  returned  to  his  own  parents.  Basil  continued  in 
retirement  for  five  years,  lived  a  strenuously  ascetic  life, 
devoted  his  property  to  ascetic  purposes,  promoted  the  forma- 
tion of  coenobitic  societies  (as  distinguished  from  the  hermit 
life)  throughout  Pontus  and  Cappadocia,  and  planned  the  rule 
for  such  life,  with  its  industries,  its  devotions,  and  its  self- 
denial,  which  has  continued  to  be  fundamental  in  the  East.^ 

See  arite^  p.  295. 


428  The  aNciEnt  cA1?H0Ltd  church  [a.d. 

Dianius,  bishop  of  Csesarea,  having  died  in  362,  Eusebius, 
a  man  of  position  and  of  piety,  but  as  yet  an  unbaptized 
layman,  was  constrained  to  accept  consecration,  and  filled 
the  see  for  eight  years.  Basil  was  ordained  priest.  At  the 
death  of  Eusebius  he  was  chosen  bishop,  after  a  hard 
contest.  Valens  was  by  this  time  on  the  throne,  and  the 
later  collisions  of  the  Arian  controversy  were  in  progress. 
Basil  had  been  early  associated  with  some  of  those  who 
were  classed  under  the  vague  name  of  Semi-Arians.  His  own 
reflections  led  him  to  apprehend  the  truth  and  worth  of 
Nicene  doctrine,  and  his  influence  tended  to  detach  from 
their  party  the  more  orthodox  Semi-Arians,  and  to  defeat  the 
policy  of  those  who  were  less  so.  This  implied  for  him  an 
active  and  troubled  life.  He  became  bishop  in  370,  and 
died  in  379.  He  manifested  extraordinary  gifts  as  a  man 
of  affairs.  In  this  connection  he  expected  his  friends  to 
make  every  sacrifice  for  the  cause  to  which  he  gave  his  own 
life,  and  some  of  them,  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  for  example, 
judged  that  he  carried  that  principle  too  masterfully  through. 
It  must  be  admitted,  also,  that  a  certain  hardness  and  im- 
patience of  temper  appears,  which  may  have  served  a  useful 
purpose  in  connection  with  his  commanding  qualities,  but 
which  must  also  have  added  to  his  difficulties.  The 
works  of  Basil  which  are  most  esteemed  are  the  books 
against  Eunomius  and  the  treatise  on  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
fortunately,  also,  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  of  his  letters 
have  been  preserved.  Among  others,  he  is  to  be  distin- 
guished from  Basil  of  Ancyra,  an  older  contemporary,  the 
leader  of  the  more  orthodox  Semi-Arians. 

Gregory  of  Nyssa  (335—395)  was  considerably  younger. 
He  shared  in  the  gifts  and  also  in  the  culture  of  the  family, 
though  he  had  not,  like  Basil,  sought  education  in  foreign 
seats  of  learning.  Though  he  early  became  a  "  reader,"  he 
was  for  a  time  disposed  to  abandon  the  ecclesiastical  career 
for  that  of  a  rhetorician,  and  earnest  remonstrances,  among 
others  from  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  were  needed  to  recall  him 
to  the  ecclesiastical  life.  Perhaps  it  was  at  this  time  he 
married;  his  wife's  name  was  Theosebeia.     His  elevation  to 


313-451)  ECCLESIASTICAL   t>EllSONAGES  429 

the  episcopate  was  due  to  the  energetic  will  of  Basil,  who, 
as  metropolitan,  felt  the  need  of  support  from  orthodox 
bishops,  and  induced  Gregory  to  accept  the  obscure  charge 
of  Nyssa,  ten  miles  from  Csesarea  (a.d.  372),  as  unattractive 
apparently  as  it  was  obscure.  Gregory  was  a  loyal  soldier 
in  the  war  against  Arianism,  but  he  proved  himself  far  from 
being  a  good  tactician.  Yet  his  fine  personal  character, 
and  his  ability  in  theological  discussions,  secured  him  a 
large  share  of  consideration.  He  witnessed  the  death  of 
Macrinain  380,  was  present  at  the  council  of  Constantinople 
in  381,  and  seems  to  have  lived  until  395.  His  most 
important  works  are  that  against  Eunomius,  the  Arian,  and 
the  Sermo  Catecheticns  Magnics,  which  reveals  to  us  how  he 
prepared  catechumens  for  baptism.  He  has  also  left  on 
record  his  impression  of  the  dangers  and  disorders  which 
attended  the  pilgrimages  to  the  holy  sites  in  Palestine. 

The  father  of  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  (also  named  Gregory) 
was  bishop  of  Nazianzus  in  South-West  Cappadocia.  He 
had  been  a  Hypsistarian,  but  was  brought  back  to  the 
Church  chiefly  through  the  influence  of  his  wife  Nonna.  A 
daughter,  Gregoria,  and  a  son,  Csesarius,  completed  the 
family.  Gregory  may  have  been  born  325  or  326.  He 
was  educated  at  Csesarea  (where  his  friendship  with  Basil 
probably  originated),  afterwards  at  Csesarea  in  Palestine,  at 
Alexandria,  and  at  Athens,  where  he  again  met  Basil,  and 
the  friendship  between  them  became  more  warm  than  ever. 
Gregory  remained  at  Athens  after  Basil  had  departed  home- 
wards: he  himself  returned  to  Nazianzus,  perhaps  in  356. 
Then  he  came  to  the  decision  to  consecrate  his  life  to  God's 
service,  but  without  committing  himself  to  withdraw  wholly 
from  the  w^orld.  He  spent  some  time,  however,  with  Basil 
at  Pontus;  but  returned  to  Nazianzus  in  or  after  360. 

Here  occurred  an  illustration  (one  of  several)  of  Gregory's 
shrinking  from  permanent  official  responsibility.  His  father 
was  anxious  to  secure  his  help,  and  availed  himself,  in  the 
spirit  of  those  days,  of  some  opportunity  of  practically  con- 
straining him  to  submit  to  ordination  as  a  priest.  Presently 
he  fled,  but  soon  felt  it  his  duty  to  return. 


430       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

From  the  time  when  Basil  left  Pontus  and  undertook 
responsible  ecclesiastical  activities  in  Csesarea,  Gregory 
appears  as  the  friend  whose  counsel  and  practical  aid  are 
ever  at  Basil's  service.  Sometimes  he  felt  that  Basil's 
energetic  will  required  of  his  friend  sacrifices  which  were 
inconsiderate  and  excessive, — as  in  his  committing  Gregory 
to  the  squalid  episcopate  of  Sasima,  which  he  soon  repudi- 
ated. But  their  friendship,  though  clouded  a  little,  con- 
tinued. His  father  died  in  374,  and  Gregory  inherited  his 
father's  estate  at  Arianzus  (which  he  devoted  mainly  to 
pious  purposes),  and  for  a  couple  of  years  took  charge  of  the 
vacant  see.  For  three  years  more  he  lived  in  retirement  in 
Isauria;  then  (after  the  death  of  Basil,  379)  he  felt  con- 
strained to  respond  to  an  appeal  to  take  charge  of  the  little 
flock  of  Nicene  Christians  at  Constantinople.  He  nobly 
fulfilled  this  office,  in  the  discharge  of  which  he  encountered 
various  undeserved  troubles.  His  five  orations  on  Arianism 
{Orat  xxvii.— xxxi.)  are  a  permanent  monument  of  his  power 
and  eloquence  in  debate. 

4.  In  the  West  we  notice  specially  Hilary  of  Poictiers, 
Martin  of  Tours,  and  Ambrose  of  Milan. 

Hilary  of  Poictiers  (not  to  be  confounded  with  Hilary  of 
Aries,  who  belongs  to  the  next  century)  is  remarkable  as  the 
first  in  the  West  who  wrote  on  the  Arian  question  with 
freedom  and  power,  and  with  a  personal  and  independent 
grasp  of  it.  At  the  same  time,  the  events  of  his  life  placed 
him  in  circumstances  to  know  at  first  hand  the  state  of 
parties  in  the  East,  and  the  influences  which  moulded 
opinion  there.  Besides,  while  he  firmly  believed  that  the 
maintenance  of  faith  in  Christ  was  bound  up  with  the 
prevalence  of  the  Nicene  Creed,  he  saw  (like  Athanasius) 
that  men  substantially  orthodox  might  have  difficulty  about 
the  terms  of  it ;  and  therefore  he  was  qualified  to  exercise 
a  benignant  and  conciliatory  influence.  It  is  an  interest- 
ing thing  that  we  have  from  himself  this  statement :  "  I 
was  a  baptized  man,  and  for  some  time  a  bishop,  yet  I 
never  had  heard  the  Nicene  Creed  till  a  little  before  I 
was  exiled.     It  was  the  evangelists  and  the  apostles  who 


313-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  431 

enabled  me  to  understand  homo-omia  and  homceousia  "  {Be 
Syn.  88). 

He  was  born  probably  at  Poictiers,  early  in  the  fourth 
century,  was  well  educated,  and  perhaps  well  descended. 
He  had  married  and  was  approaching  middle  life  when  he 
passed  from  a  refined  and  thoughtful  paganism  to  Christian- 
ity. The  process  was  gradual,  and  was  accompanied  and 
completed  by  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  latterly  more 
especially  of  the  Gospel  according  to  John.  He  was  baptized, 
perhaps  about  350,  and  set  himself  to  live  as  an  earnest 
Christian  layman. 

A  vacancy  occurred  in  the  see  of  Poictiers  in  353  ; 
Hilary  was  chosen  to  succeed  by  the  popular  voice,  and  so 
became  bishop  per  saltum.  He  soon  became  involved  in  the 
Arian  controversy  as  urged  on  in  Gaul  by  Ursacius  and 
Valens,  and  by  Saturninus  of  Aries.  Eventually  he  was 
banished  by  Constantius  to  Phrygia.  He  found  much  to 
displease  him  in  the  state  of  matters  in  the  Eastern  Church ; 
but  he  was  able  to  be  of  use  in  removing  prejudices  which 
embittered  Eastern  and  Western  men  against  one  another. 
He  became  convinced  that  with  many  who  w^ere  ranked 
with  Semi-Arians  an  understanding  was  possible,  and  this 
conviction  regulated  his  attitude  thenceforward :  that  is,  his 
object  was,  trusting  such  men  as  friends,  to  lead  them  to 
accept  the  Nicene  Creed.  Constantius  allowed  him  to 
return  to  the  West,  and  he  reached  Poictiers  again  in  362. 
While  still  in  the  East  he  composed  his  chief  works,  de 
Synodis  and  de   Trinitate. 

In  the  work  of  rallying  and  consolidating  the  Nicene 
party  he  made  a  long  visit  to  Italy  and  Illyricum.  In  the 
former  country  he  came  into  sharp  collision  with  Auxentius 
of  Milan,  whom  he  disliked  and  distrusted.  He  finally  died 
in  Poictiers  in  368 

Hilary's  statements  on  some  points  connected  with  the 
Incarnation  have  not  been  regarded  as  in  harmony  with  the 
decisions  of  the  third  and  fourth  councils ;  but  the  ability 
and  the  effectiveness  with  which  he  discussed  the  questions 
that  were  under  debate  in  his  own  day  won  for  him  great 


432       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

respect  in  the  Western  Church.  Afterwards,  the  splendour 
of  Augustine  threw  Hilary  comparatively  into  the  shade. 

Besides  the  works  mentioned  above,  and  various  smaller 
tracts,  Hilary  was  the  first  in  the  West  who  regularly 
commented  on  a  gospel  (Matthew)  from  beginning  to  end. 
A  certain  number  of  hymns,  in  classic  metre,  are  also 
ascribed  to  him.  He  touches  also  the  history  of  monachism, 
as  Martin  of  Tours,  after  he  retired  from  military  life, 
placed  himself  under  Hilary's  eye.  Hilary's  banishment, 
and  Martin's  expedition  to  Pannonia,  to  press  Christianity 
on  his  father  and  mother,  separated  them.  But  both 
returned  to  Poictiers,  and  Martin  founded  a  monastic  society 
a  few  miles  from  that  city.  It  was  after  the  death  of 
Hilary  that  Martin  was  elected  to  the  bishopric  of  Tours. 

Martin  of  Tours,  born  316,  was  a  native  of  Pannonia,  of 
heathen  parentage,  his  father  being  a  soldier  who  attained 
the  rank  of  military  tribune.  From  his  boyhood  Christianity 
attracted  him,  and  he  became  a  catechumen ;  but  he  was 
obliged  to  enter  the  army,  in  which  he  served  five  years. 
During  this  time  the  incident  of  his  giving  half  his  cloak  to  a 
beggar  occurred,  and  his  baptism  immediately  followed.  For 
some  time  he  placed  himself  under  the  influence  of  Hilary 
of  Poictiers;  but  with  Hilary's  approbation  he  set  out  for 
Pannonia  to  endeavour  to  convert  his  parents,  while  Hilary 
himself  had  to  depart  to  the  East,  banished  by  the  Arian 
emperor.  Martin  succeeded  in  winning  his  mother,  but  not 
his  father ;  he  suffered  some  persecution  from  Arians ;  and 
eventually  came  back  to  Poictiers,  where  he  found  Hilary, 
now  returned  to  his  see.  Martin  now  set  up  a  house  for 
religious  life  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Poictiers,  which  is 
reckoned  the  beginning  of  such  houses  in  Gaul.  In  371 
Martin's  reputation  led  to  his  being  elected,  not  without 
some  opposition,  to  the  vacant  see  of  Tours,  which  he  con- 
tinued to  occupy  until  A.D,  397;  and  he  did  important  work 
in  depressing  and  suppressing  paganism  in  the  district 
around  Tours.  In  doing  so  he  had  the  imperial  laws  to 
support  him.  But  he  operated  mainly  as  a  great  religious 
character  who  impressed  and  overawed  the  general  mind. 


313-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL    PERSONAGES  433 

He  came  mucli  into  contact  with  Maximus,  the  usurping 
emperor  of  Gaul  and  Britain,  who  seems  to  have  cherished 
a  certain  respect  for  religion,  or  at  least  appreciated  the 
importance  of  winning  support  from  religious  persons.  But 
Martin  failed  to  obtain,  as  he  desired,  the  preservation  of 
the  life  of  Priscillian,  whose  heresy  he  disapproved,  but 
whose  condemnation  to  death  on  that  account  he  reckoned 
thoroughly  unchristian.  Probably  the  emperor  judged  it 
politic  to  gratify  the  assailants  of  Priscillian.  Martin's  con- 
duct in  the  various  stages  of  this  situation  leaves  on  the 
mind  a  strong  impression  of  his  right  feeling  and  his  courage. 
The  date  of  his  death  has  been  disputed  (397  or  400). 

To  Martin  of  Tours  this  interest  attaches,  that  we  see 
in  him  the  embodiment  of  a  lifelong  religious  enthusiasm, 
inspired  and  directed  by  the  supernatural  world  of  Christian 
realities  as  that  was  understood  in  his  time.  To  realise  it 
fully,  to  assert  its  incomparable  claims,  to  anticipate  in  his 
own  person,  as  much  as  might  be,  the  eventual  triumph 
over  the  secular  and  the  transitory — this  was  his  passion. 
The  consequence,  natural  at  that  time,  was  that  he  selected 
the  ascetic  life  as  his  pathway,  and  that  he  moves  before  us 
in  a  halo  of  fanciful  supernaturalism,  which  he  certainly 
largely  believed  in  himself,  and  which  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
friends  multiplied  and  enhanced.  And  yet,  amid  the  de- 
ceptions which  this  implies,  and  along  with  some  of  the 
weaknesses  which  it  fostered,^  Martin  must  be  credited  with 
a  Christian  good  feeling  which  breaks  through  all  the  rest 
and  lends  a  charm  of  its  own  to  his  visions,  his  conflicts,  and 
his  other  marvels.* 

"^  E.g.  a  touch  of  arrogance,  incidental  to  a  man  so  favoured  and  admired. 

^  Martin's  life  is  from  the  hand  of  a  friend,  Sulpicius  Severus.  The  life 
was  published  in  Martin's  lifetime,  and  the  Dialogi,  which  furnish  a  supple- 
ment, soon  after  his  death.  The  humorous  element  which  seldom  wholly 
fails  in  legend,  does  not  fail  here.  For  example,  Martin  seeks  an  audience,  at 
Treves,  with  Valentinian  i.,  who  is  prejudiced  and  refuses  to  receive  him. 
Martin  makes  his  way,  unauthorised,  into  the  audience-chamber.  Valen- 
tinian, offended,  will  not  rise  from  his  chair  (as  Christian  emperors  usually 
did  in  receiving  bishops),  "donee  regiam  sellam  ignis  operiret,  ipsumque 
legem,  ea  parte  corporis  qua  sedebat,  adflaiet  incendium.  Ita  solio  suo  super- 
bus  excutitur,  et  Martino  invitus  adsurgit. " 
28 


434       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

Ambrose  of  Milan  inherited  social  distinction;  he  also 
had  become  a  great  officer  of  the  empire ;  his  capacity  for 
affairs  is  approved  by  the  whole  history  of  his  life.  He  is 
suddenly  called  to  become  the  guide  of  the  church  at  Milan. 
Once  induced  to  accept  the  post,  he  instantly  becomes  a 
great  churchman.  The  distinction  of  the  Eoman  gentleman, 
the  experience  and  the  aptitudes  of  a  governor,  the  dexterity 
and  the  courage  of  a  man  who  has  been  throughout  true  to 
himself,  lend  themselves  at  once  to  the  claims  of  the  new 
position ;  and  he  is  invested  with  a  new  greatness  corre- 
sponding to  the  higher  kingdom. 

He  was  born  about  A.D.  340.  His  father  had  been 
Prsefectus  Prsetorio  of  the  Gauls,  one  of  the  highest  adminis- 
trative offices  in  the  empire.  He  himself  had  become  Praetor 
of  Liguria  and  -^^milia,  i.e.  practically  of  Upper  Italy.  He 
belonged  to  a  devout  family ;  for  though  we  do  not  know 
much  of  his  father  and  mother,  the  character  of  his  brother 
Satyrus,  and  of  his  sister  Marcellina,  who  devoted  herself  to 
a  religious  life  when  Ambrose  was  still  a  youth,  indicate  the 
influences  that  had  access  to  the  household.  Yet  Ambrose 
had  not  been  baptized  when  the  time  came  for  the  church 
of  Milan  to  call  him  to  her  service.  He  was  known,  how- 
ever, to  the  people  as  a  just  and  good  governor,  and  as  a 
man  whose  way  of  life  made  him  trusted  and  respected. 

Auxentius,  the  bishop  of  Milan,  was  an  Arian.^  In  374 
he  died.  The  election  of  a  successor  occasioned  great  ex- 
citement, for  ortho4ox  and  Arian  strove  for  victory.  The 
story  is  well  known  how  a  cry  got  up  "  Ambrose  for  bishop," 
how  all  parties  responded  to  it,  and  how  Ambrose,  after 
effijrts  to  resist  or  evade  the  call,  gave  way.  His  baptism 
and  his  consecration  were  speedily  arranged  for  and  carried 
through. 

The  mark  which  Ambrose  left  on  the  Church  was  not 
due  chiefly  to  his  learning  or  to  his  speculative  power.     As 

^  Of  what  precise  type  we  do  not  very  accurately  know.  During  some  part 
of  his  episcopate,  according  to  Hilary,  he  proposed  to  accept  the  Nicene 
Creed,  but  not  sincerely.  Auxentius  was  a  friend  of  Ulfilas.  One  would 
like  to  know  more  of  him. 


313-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  436 

to  learning,  he  had  the  advantage  of  the  education  usual 
among  the  upper  classes,  which  included  facility  in  Greek. 
That  enabled  him  to  draw  freely  from  the  works  of  the 
Greek  writers  who  were  then  recent  (Basil  of  Caesarea, 
perhaps,  as  much  as  any ;  also  Athanasius).  From  this 
source  his  preaching  and  writing  drew  freshness,  and  it 
added  a  useful  element  to  the  theology  of  the  West.  As 
to  the  speculative  side,  he  possessed  a  vigorous  understand- 
ing, well  trained  in  affairs.  That  might  not  qualify  him  to 
shine  in  the  dialectics  of  the  Arian  controversy,  but  it  gave 
him  confidence  in  choosing  his  ground  and  deciding  on  the 
means  by  which  it  could  best  be  maintained.  His  chief 
power  was  that  of  a  great  churchman,  whose  personal 
sincerity  was  never  doubted,  whose  sagacity  in  affairs, 
secular  and  ecclesiastical,  was  conspicuous,  whose  courage 
never  failed,  and  whose  previous  eminence,  both  of  birth  and 
of  service,  gave  him  a  personal  distinction  which  he  knew 
very  well  how  to  make  available.  All  this  he  brought  to 
the  service  of  Nicene  Christianity.  To  name  one  depart- 
ment more,  his  ideas  of  ethics  Appear  chiefly  in  his  Be 
officiis  ministrorum.  It  leans  much  on  Cicero,  de  Officiis,  and 
so  presents  a  Stoic  scheme,  harmonised  with  Christian 
ascetic.  Here  the  characteristic  dependence  of  the 
Christians  on  the  philosophers  for  the  scheme  of  their 
ethical  thinking  is  plain  enough.^ 

Ambrose  occupied  the  chair  of  the  church  of  Milan  for 
three  and  twenty  years.  The  power  he  exercised  comes  out 
in  various  striking  incidents.  During  part  of  his  episco- 
pate he  had  to  deal  with  Justina,  widow  of  Valentinian  I., 
and  regent  for  his  sons,  tvho  were  still  minors.  Justina  was 
an  Arian,  and,  supported  by  the  Arian  convictions  of  her 
Gothic  soldiers,  she  strove  to  advance  the  Arian  cause. 
The  view  of  duty  which  Ambrose  took  led  him  to  concede 
to  the  Arian s  nothing  that  was  the  Church's.  He  had  no 
physical  force  at  his  disposal;  but  he  never  flinched,  and 
he  thoroughly  realised  how  a  great  community,  pervaded 
by  an  intense  enthusiasm,  can  daunt  and  paralyse  an  ad- 
1  Compare  the  dependence  of  Nilus  (a  younger  contemporary)  on  Epictetus, 


436  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH     [a.d.  313-451 

ministrative  authority  destitute  of  the  elements  of  moral 
force.  From  Augustine  we  have  a  lively  picture  of  the 
sensations,  of  the  churches  garrisoned  by  congregations  at 
a  high  pitch  of  feeling,  of  the  influence  of  hymns  sung  by 
responsive  choirs,  and,  finally,  of  the  enthusiasm  connected 
with  the  discovery  of  the  relics  of  Protasius  and  Gervasius, 
and  by  the  miracles  they  wrought.  This  last,  it  must  be 
owned,  was  the  most  questionable  part  of  the  whole  business.^ 
Ambrose  could  not  be  overborne ;  he  maintained  his  ground. 
To  the  young  Emperor  Gratian  he  was  a  wise  and  disin- 
terested guide,  and  in  the  unsettled  and  miserable  period 
which  followed  Gratian's  death  he  continued  to  do  his 
utmost  for  the  empire.  When  Theodosius  the  Great  asserted 
himself  in  the  West,  a  new  prospect  opened,  for  the  emperor 
and  the  bishop  had  the  highest  regard  for  one  another. 
Yet  this  was  the  time  at  which  the  bishop,  on  the  news 
of  the  terrible  massacre  at  Thessalonica,  refused  to  admit 
the  emperor  to  the  communion,  except  as  a  penitent  who 
made  his  penitence  evident  to  all. 

-  Ambrose  introduced  into  the  church  at  Milan  musical 
methods  (Antiphonal  chanting  is  especially  mentioned)  which 
were  previously  unknown  in  the  worship  of  Italy  (Aug. 
Conf,  ix.  7).  Ambrose  also  signalised  himself  by  Latin 
hymns,  which  could  be  sung,  and  which  are  still  prized  in 
the  Church.  They  were  composed  in  one  form  of  the 
classic  metres. 

Personages  whose  lives  extended  into  the  fifth  century 
will  be  referred  to  in  another  chapter. 

^  Gonfesdom,  ix.;  De  Civ.  Dei,  xxii.;  Ambrose,  I!pp.  xx.-xxii.  The 
analysis  of  this  business  in  Isaac  Taylor's  Ancient  Ohristicmity  is  still  worth 
reading. 


CHAPTER    XXVI 

Festivals,  Church  Services,  and  Sacraments 

Bingham,  Chr.  Antiq.     Smith  and  Cheetham,  Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq. 
A.    FESTIVALS 

At  the  opening  of  this  period  three  annual  festivals  were 
generally  observed  in  the  Church — Easter,  Pentecost,  and 
Epiphany.  By  the  end  of  it  Christmas  also  had  come  into 
general  observance. 

In  the  West,  Easter  was  observed  on  the  date  fixed  as 
proper  by  the  bishop  of  Eome,  and  notified  by  him  to  the 
Western  churches.  In  the  East,  Alexandria  was  recognised 
as  the  church  best  qualified  to  solve  aright  the  difficulties 
of  the  reckoning,  and  accordingly  the  synod  of  Nicaea 
authorised  the  practice  of  that  church  to  be  followed.^ 
Easter  Sunday  was  generally  the  day  from  which  everything 
else  was  reckoned,  and  it  was  itself  fixed  to  be  after  the 
first  full  moon  following  the  spring  equinox.  But  which 
day  of  March  should  be  reckoned  the  vernal  equinox  ?  In 
the  West  the  1 8th  of  March  held  this  place,  in  the  East  the 
2 1  st.  Moreover,  the  true  day  of  the  full  moon — and  in  that 
connection  the  true  day  of  the  new  moon  (which  had  of 
course  to  be  reckoned  beforehand) — were  calculated  accord- 

*  Rome  itself  recognised  the  special  resources  of  Alexandria  in  reckonings 
of  this  kind.  Nevertheless,  diverging  customs  and  different  cycles  continued 
to  create  frequent  misunderstandings,  and  in  one  famous  case  (a.d.  387)  Rome 
celebrated  live  weeks  before  Alexandria.  The  custom  at  Alexandria  was  for 
the  bishop  to  send  out  "Festal  Letters"  to  announce  the  proper  day  for 
Easter.  In  the  case  of  Athanasius  some  of  these  are  preserved  and  possess 
historical  importance. 

437 


438       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

ing  to  "  cycles  "  of  years,  during  which  the  varying  relation 
of  the  moon  to  the  sun's  arrival  at  the  equinox  was  sup- 
posed to  fulfil  its  stages,  returning  at  the  end  to  what  it 
was  at  the  beginning.  But  none  of  these  cycles  was 
perfectly  accurate,  and  different  cycles  (approximating  to 
the  facts  with  different  degrees  of  accuracy)  were  in  use. 

The  previous  fast  was  now  generally  fixed  at  forty  days. 
Six  weeks  corresponded  with  sufficient  nearness,  though  as 
Sundays  were  not  days  of  fasting,  only  thirty-six  days  of 
actual  fasting  were  thus  imposed.^ 

In  the  church  of  Jerusalem  the  custom  had  been  intro- 
duced of  allotting  eight  weeks  to  the  fast.  As  both  Sunday 
and  Saturday  (except  Saturday  before  Easter)  were  non- 
fasting  days  in  the  East,  eight  weeks  gave  forty  days  of 
fasting.  The  period  of  the  fast  was  recognised  by  the  State, 
by  suspension  of  criminal  prosecutions.  Also  the  Church  held 
no  feasts  of  martyrs  during  this  time,  and  marriages  and 
birthday  feasts  were  not  celebrated  (Can.  Laod.  52).  The 
peculiar  gaieties  of  Carnival  are  thought  to  have  originated 
in  Italy,  and  to  have  been  connected  with  the  Lupercalia. 

In  Passion  week,  "  the  great  week,"  business  was  sus- 
pended, courts  of  justice  and  theatres  were  closed.  Morning 
and  evening  service  was  held  daily,  works  of  mercy  were 
specially  appropriate,  slaves  were  manumitted,  and  Govern- 
ment granted  pardon  to  prisoners;  also  penitents  received 
the  Church's  reconciliation.  The  week  began  with  Palm 
Sunday,  in  remembrance  of  the  entry  of  our  Lord  into 
Jerusalem.  The  Thursday  (also  known  later  as  Coena 
Domini)  was  the  day  on  which  our  Lord  instituted  the 
Supper.  The  communion  was  celebrated  morning  and 
evening  of  this  day,  and  it  was  the  usual  day  for  catechu- 
mens about  to  be  baptized  to  repeat  the  creed  publicly. 
Good  Friday  {dies  crucis,  dominicce  passionis)  was  a  strict 
fast,  and  the  communion  was  not  celebrated.^     The  Saturday 

^  Long  afterwards  the  beginning  of  Lent  was  carried  back  from  Sunday 
to  the  previous  Wednesday,  which  acquired  the  name  of  Dies  Cinerum. 

2  Except  in  Syria,  and  in  the  evening;  mostly  in  cemeteries,  etc.,  iu 
remembrance  of  the  descensus  ad  inferos. 


313-451]         FESTIVALS,    CHURCH   SERVICES,    ETC.  439 

("great  Sabbath")  was  signalised  by  the  baptism  of  those 
whose  catechumenate  had  been  completed.  Sometimes  at 
this  point,  sometimes  earlier  in  the  week,  a  ceremony  of 
feet-washing  was  introduced  in  connection  with  baptism,  in 
which  the  bishop  and  clergy  officiated  (Ambr.  de  Incar. 
sdcr.  3.  1 ;  forbidden  Gotic.  Illib.  can.  48  ;  and  disapproved 
by  Augustine). 

During  the  night  the  Lenten  fast  closed  and  the  joyful 
vigil  of  Easter  set  in,  till  cockcrow,  when  the  Easter  Com- 
munion was  celebrated, — the  newly  baptized  partaking. 
This  time  of  religious  excitement  was  not  always  free  from 
scandals  (Hieron.  adv.  Vigil.  9). 

The  week  after  Easter  was  marked  by  a  succession  of 
festal  observances.  The  suspension  of  business,  public  and 
private,  continued,  and  Jews  and  Heathens  were  obliged  to 
submit  to  restrictions.  The  newly  baptized  wore  their  white 
garments  for  the  last  time  on  the  Sunday  following  Easter 
(Dominica  in  Albis). 

The  fifty  days  after  Easter  were  reckoned  days  of 
religious  gladness  and  closed  with  Pentecost,  commemorat- 
ing the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit.  The  fortieth  day  com- 
memorated the  Ascension  of  our  Lord,  and  in  some  places, 
for  a  time,  this  fortieth  day  was  reckoned  the  closing  day 
of  the  festival  {Cone.  Illib.  can.  43).  Both  Pentecost  and 
Ascension  were  reckoned  great  festivals. 

Epiphany  (on  6  th  January),  which  by  degrees  gathered 
around  it  various  associations,  had,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
been  associated  with  the  baptism  of  our  Lord.  But  as  the 
manifestation  through  the  Incarnation  (associated  with  the 
star  of  the  Magi)  was  the  earlier  and  more  fundamental 
manifestation  of  our  Lord,  this  was  now  included  in  the 
significance  of  the  festival,  and  became  prominent.  There  is 
reason  for  thinking  that  the  celebration  of  our  Lord's  birth 
at  Epiphany  continued  in  the  West  till  A.D.  352.  But  in 
A.D.  354  the  festival  of  our  Lord's  birth  is  carried  back  to 
25th  December,^  which  was  already  known,  apart  from 
Christianity,  as  dies  invidi  Solis,  This  date  was  received 
^  See  refl  in  W.  Holler's  Lehrhuchf  i.  544. 


440       THE  ANCIEKT  catholic  church       [a.d 

at  Constantinople  A.D.  379.  In  A.D.  388  we  find  Chry- 
sostom  saying, "  ten  years  have  not  yet  passed  since  this  day 
became  plainly  known  to  us."  ^  The  Armenian  Church  con- 
tinued to  celebrate  the  birth  of  Christ  on  Epiphany. 


B.    OKDER    OF    SERVICE 

The  type  of  the  worship  of  the  Church  is  furnished  by 
the  chief  service  of  the  Lord's  day.  On  great  festivals,  as 
at  Easter,  features  were  added  to  give  greater  fulness  and 
emphasis ;  on  minor  occasions  the  service  was  simplified. 

The  term  Liturgy  denotes  the  performance  of  divine 
worship,  alike  as  to  matter  and  manner.  It  might  therefore 
be  written  or  unwritten,  carried  on  with  fixed  forms  of 
speech  or  with  spontaneous  prayers,  or  partly  with  both. 
In  usage  the  word  came  to  denote  the  form  of  service  as 
written  down,  and  different  types  of  liturgy  arose  from  the 
varying  custom  of  different  great  churches. 

The  practice  of  free  prayer  certainly  had  place  in  the 
earliest  churches,  along  with  a  conception  of  some  order  of 
service.  But  as  always  happens,  the  influence  of  revered 
teachers,  and  the  recollection  of  sentences  that  seemed 
specially  apt  and  edifying,  would  set  a  type.  The  more  that 
forms  multiplied  and  stages  of  the  worship  were  dis- 
tinguished, the  more  need  would  be  felt  of  helps  to  assist 
the  mind  in  conducting  the  service.  And  the  more  that 
divine  service  assumed  the  character  of  a  rite  of  mystic 
power,  the  more  important  it  would  seem  to  secure  that 
approved  and  authentic  formulae  were  uttered  in  connection 
with  it.  Perhaps  the  earliest  collection  of  written  prayers  to 
which  we  can  ascribe  a  date  is  that  of  Serapion  of  Thmuis.^ 
This  is  not  a  prayer-book  arranged  in  order  of  service,  but  a 
collection  of  prayers  adapted  to  different  situations  in  public 
worship,  which  could  be  referred  to  as  need  might  require. 

When  our  period  begins,  i.e.  before  the  time  of  Constan- 
tino, many  characteristic  features  had  become  fixed : — the 
impression  of  secrecy  as  proper  in  regard  to  Christian 
1  Horn.  L  '  Jmrnial  of  Theol.  Studies^  vol.  i.,  Camb.  1899. 


313-461]         FESTIVALS,    CHURCH   SERVICES,    ETC.  441 

mysteries,  the  separation  of  the  catechumen's  service  from 
the  rest,  the  idea  of  offering  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  The 
tendency  to  make  the  service  more  full  and  imposing  was 
steadily  at  work,  hence  the  local  varieties  of  practice  were 
discouraged,  and  the  methods  elaborated  in  the  great 
churches  imposed  themselves  as  authoritative.  These  ways 
of  ordering  the  worship  passed  into  writing  at  dates  which 
are  uncertain,  and  great  names  were  attached  to  them; 
liturgies  of  St  Mark,  St.  James,  St.  Chrysostom,  preserve, 
with  later  modifications,  the  usage  of  Alexandria,  of  Pales- 
tine, and  of  Constantinople.  In  the  Latin  world  various 
types  of  services  existed, — North  African,  Gallic,  Gothic, 
Mozarabic,  Milanese,  etc.  But  the  practice  of  the  Koman 
church  eventually  prevailed ;  only  later,  and  less  completely 
in  some  places  than  in  others.  What  concerns  us  at 
present  is  the  practice  of  the  fourth  and  part  of  the  fifth 
century. 

Worship  began  with  the  catechumen's  service,^  which 
included  readings  from  the  Scriptures,^  with  the  sermon  or 
exhortation.  Singing  was  introduced  at  fitting  points,  and 
also  prayer, — the  most  important  and  characteristic  suppli- 
cations coming  at  the  close  of  this  part  of  the  service. 
Prayers,  first  in  silence,  then  at  the  bidding  of  the  deacon, 
and  finally  led  by  the  bishop,  were  said  for  catechumens, 
for  those  possessed,  and  for  penitents, — each  class  being 
separately  dismissed  after  the  prayer  appropriate  to  it  had 
been  offered. 

The  second  part  of  the  service,  from  which  all  but 
baptized  believers  were  excluded,  began  with  a  general 
supplication    of    considerable    length.       At    a    later    period 

^  The  division  of  the  service  into  two  parts  was  destined  to  pass  away, 
chiefly  because  catechumens  ceased  to  exist  after  infant  baptism  became 
universal,  and  when  an  adult  population  reared  in  heathenism  no  longer 
existed.  Yet  the  ancient  custom  left  its  mark  permanently  on  the  Church's 
order  of  service. 

"  During  the  fourth  century  the  practice  prevailed  of  reading  straight 
on  through  one  book  after  another  {lectio  continua),  but  this  was  gradually 
interfered  with  and  practically  superseded  by  the  reading  of  selected  passages. 
But  in  this,  and  also  in  the  number  of  lections  read  at  each  service,  consider- 
able variety  existed. 


442       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

some  of  the  materials  of  this  prayer  were  transferred  to 
other  parts  of  the  service.  Then  followed  the  irpoacpopd, 
oUatio,  offering,  i.e.  the  gifts  brought  by  the  people  (gradu- 
ally confined  to  bread,  wine,  grapes,  and  wheat).  These 
were  collected  by  the  deacons,  and  prayer  was  made  that 
they  might  be  accepted,  and  that  blessing  in  return  might 
be  vouchsafed-  Here  followed  in  the  East  the  kiss  of 
peace :  it  was  postponed  to  a  later  stage  in  the  West. 
A  portion  of  bread  and  wine  being  selected  out  of  the 
gifts  for  use  in  the  sacrament,^  there  was  offered  the  prayer 
of  thanksgiving,  in  which,  with  all  creatures,  the  congre- 
gation thanked  God  for  all  His  benefits,  especially  for  the 
Incarnation  and  Eedemption;  and  after  recitation  of  the 
words  of  institution,  the  Holy  Ghost  was  invoked  to  make 
the  elements  to  be  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ.^  The 
prayers  went  on  to  make  supplication  for  the  Church,  the 
world,  and  also  for  all  departed  believers,  including  Patri- 
archs, Prophets,^  etc.     The  Lord's  Prayer  followed. 

All  this  prepared  for  the  actual  dispensation  which 
began  with  the  celebrant's  announcement,  Sanda  Sanctis 
(Holy  things  for  the  Holy),  with  a  response  from  the 
people,  the  Doxology,  and  the  Hosanna.  Then  the  con- 
gregation received  in  due  order, — clergy,  ascetics,  deacon- 
esses, virgins,  and  afterwards  the  general  body  of  the 
believing  people.  Each  received  the  bread  from  the  bishop 
or  presbyter  with  the  words,  "the  body  of  Christ,"  and 
the  cup  from  the  officiating  deacon  with  the  words,  "the 
blood  of  Christ,  the  cup  of  life."  Singing  (of  Ps.  34) 
was  used  during  the  Communion.  The  deacon  afterwards 
exhorted  to  thanks,  and  to  prayer  for  a  blessing  on  the 
participation;  the  bishop  gave  his  benediction,  and  the 
deacon  added  "  go  in  peace." 

Leavened  bread,  i.e.  common  bread,  was  still  everywhere 

*  This  custom  continued  as  late  as  Gregory  i, 

^  This  invocation  was  conceived  to  be  the  decisive  act  of  consecration. 
The  Western  view,  that  the  recitation  of  the  words  of  institution  occupies 
that  place,  seems  to  be  later. 

^  The  creed  was  read  here,  or  in  close  connection  with  the  dispensation  of 
the  elements  ;  but  not  till  late  in  fifth  century :  first  at  Antioch,  a.d.  471. 


313-451]         FESTIVALS,    CHURCH   SERVICES,    ETC.  443 

in  use  except  in  Syria.  There  was  no  elevation  of  the 
elements  in  order  to  adoration,  nor  any  idea  of  communion 
in  one  kind,  which  indeed  would  have  incurred  the  charge 
of  Manicheism.  The  communion  of  children,  even  of  infants, 
i.e.,  of  course,  of  such  as  had  been  baptized,  was  recognised 
and  practised;  and  they,  like  others,  were  expected  to 
communicate  fasting. 

No  uniform  practice  existed  as  to  celebration  of  the 
Eucharist  on  other  days  besides  Sunday.  Daily  celebration 
is  mentioned ;  —  also  in  each  week  Sunday,  Wednesday, 
Friday,  Saturday.  Daily  service,  including  the  Eucharist 
with  sermon,  was  customary  in  Lent,  and  also  in  the 
period  from  Easter  to  Pentecost.  But  some  churches  were 
content  with  Sunday  alone,  or  Sunday  and  Saturday.  It 
need  hardly  be  said  that  no  general  attendance  of  the 
people  (except  in  unusual  circumstances)  could  be  expected 
on  any  day  but  Sunday.  Even  on  Sunday  a  great  tendency 
on  the  part  of  baptized  members  to  go  away  before  the 
communion  is  complained  of  by  Chrysostom  and  others. 
But  there  is  no  trace  of  celebration  of  the  Eucharist  by 
the  celebrant  alone,  without  the  presence  of  other  com- 
municants. 

Matins  and  Vespers  afforded  a  daily  opportunity  of 
worship.  Matins  being  held  commonly  before  daybreak, 
so  as  to  become  a  vigil.  The  68th  Psalm  was  considered 
appropriate  to  the  morning,  and  the  141st  to  the  evening 
service ;  there  were  prayers  for  the  different  classes  of 
persons  under  the  care  of  the  Church,  and  often  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  With  a  view  to  great  feasts  and  martyrs' 
days,  the  vigils  became  very  attractive  and  attended  with 
much  devotional  feeling.  There  was  much  singing  at 
these  services.  The  ancient  Greek  hymn  <^a)9  tkapov 
ayla^  B6^7)<;  was  a  vesper  hymn.  The  congregation  joined 
in  singing,  sometimes  by  chanting  at  the  end  of  the  psalm, 
as  sung  by  the  psaltist  or  the  choir,  an  acrostichion  (or 
akroteleution) — a  verse  which  served  as  a  sacred  chorus ; 
or  they  were  trained  to  sing  in  unison,  or  by  two  divisions 
responding   to   one   another.      Development  of   hymns  for 


•i44  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

use  in  public  worship  became  notable  at  this  time  both  in 
the  East  and  in  the  West.^ 


C.    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    EUCHARIST 

F.  C.  Baur,  Vorlesungen  iiber  die  C%ristliche  Dogmengeschichte,  Leipzig, 
1846,  vol.  i.  2^^  Absclinitt,  p.  410. 

The  views  and  the  modes  of  speech  already  prevalent  ^ 
continue  in  the  present  period ;  but  all  are  emphasised  and 
more  largely  developed.  It  is  difficult  to  give  a  perfectly 
fair  view  of  the  doctrine  really  held.  For  the  Sacrament 
expresses  donation  by  the  Lord  and  acceptance  by  us; 
it  also  connects  in  some  way  the  sign  with  the  thing 
signified,  which  last  is  eternal  life  in  Christ,  in  some 
aspect  of  it.  Now,  as  yet,  the  aim  of  writers  for  the 
most  part  is  not  to  define,  but  to  combine,  these  great 
ideas  in  every  way  that  seemed  fitted  to  awaken  wonder 
and  gratitude.  In  the  ardour  of  worship  one  view  runs 
easily  into  another. 

In  general,  the  view  held  is  that  in  the  Sacrament 
we  have  bread  and  wine  and  something  more;  and  that 
something  more,  being  the  main  thing,  is  often  spoken  of 
as  if  its  presence  elevated  and  transformed  the  bread  and 
wine, — as  if  these  lost  their  nature  and  ceased  to  be  what 
they  had  been,  merged,  as  it  were,  in  that  which  is  higher. 
Hence  terms  like  fiera^oXt],  fieraTrotetadaty  fierarlOeadai, 
converterej  transfigurare,  are  used  of  the  elements,^  and  they 
are  used  with  increasing  frequency ;  and  very  strong  ex- 
pressions regarding  the  real  participation  of  the  body  of 
Christ,  and  its  descent  into  our  bodies,  occur,  for  instance, 
in  Chrysostom  {in  Jo.  Horn.  45 ;  in  Matth.  Horn.  83), 
Ambrose  {de  init.  Myst.  c.  8.  9),  and  Cyril  of  Alexandria. 
Yet  when  all  the  statements  of  these  and  other  writers 
are  compared,  transubstantiation  cannot  be  taken  as  their 
meaning.     For  the  symbolical  interpretation  always  occurs 

^  See  well-known  passage  of  Aug.  Conf.  ix.  6.    See  introduction  to  Trench's 
Sacked  Latin  Poetry,  and  that  to  Neale's  Hymns  of  the  Eastern  Church. 
3  Ante,  pp.  231,  232.  »  Cyrill.  Jar.  Cat,  xxii.  6. 


313-451]         FESTIVALS,    CHURCH    SERVICES,    ETC.  445 

again ;  also  reasoning  which  implies  that  bread  and  wine 
retain  their  own  nature,  and  that  explanations  must  be 
based  on  that  assumption. 

Three  phases  may  be  distinguished.  1.  That  the  body 
of  Christ,  which  He  took  from  the  Virgin,  is  to  be  believed 
to  be  present  and  to  be  received.  Not  unfrequently  this 
is  referred  to  a  special  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  2.  The 
elements  by  consecration  receive  the  same  relation  to  the 
Logos  which  the  body  of  our  Lord  holds  (Greg.  Nyss.  Orat. 
Catechet.  c.  37).  3.  The  symbolic  view:  the  bread  and  wine 
are  authentic  signs  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  In  the 
believing  reception  of  them  we  are  afresh  incorporated  or 
implanted  in  Christ's  true  body,  the  fellowship  of  the  head 
and  members  (Aug.  c.  Adim.  c.  12  ;  Tr.  in  Ev.  Jo.  26). 

But  the  conception  not  only  of  a  sacrament  but  of  a 
sacrifice  was  now  well  established,  not  merely  in  reference 
to  the  gifts  of  the  congregation,  but  in  reference  to  the 
elements  as  consecrated.  This  offering  was,  in  the  first 
place,  a  pious  commemoration  of  the  one  offering  on  the 
cross  (Aug.  De  Civ.  x.  5 ;  Chrys.  in  Hebr.  Horn.  1 7). 
But  it  was  regarded  also  as  having,  by  way  of  offering,  value 
and  efficiency  of  its  own  (Chrys.  often).  In  this  form  the 
congregation  was  conceived  to  make  its  most  effectual  ap- 
proach to  God  on  behalf  of  the  dead.  As  the  Eucharist 
gave  lively  expression  to  the  fellowship  of  believers,  so  in 
the  offering  they  remembered  the  blessed  dead ;  and  having 
in  an  earlier  age  prayed  for  their  repose,  now  the  wor- 
shippers rather  sought  in  this  way  benefit  for  themselves  by 
the  prayers  of  those  saintly  persons.  But  prayers  for  the 
dead  in  general,  as  well  as  for  the  various  interests  of  human 
society,  were  offered  specially  in  connection  with  this  sacrifice. 
Also  we  find  it  administered  when  death  was  near  as  a 
viaticum  (Aug.  Serm.  172). 


D.   BAPTISM 

The  ritual  of  baptism  as  it  existed  towards  the  close  of 
the  preceding  period  has  already  been  sketched  (p.  233). 


446       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.t). 

From  the  time  of  Constantine  more  neophytes  presented 
themselves,  and  baptisteries  were  enlarged.  Yet  the  tend- 
ency to  delay  baptism  also  continued  to  operate ;  this  was 
partly  due  to  indifference,  partly  to  a  dread  of  undertaking 
the  purity  and  strictness  of  Christian  life,  partly  to  the  risk 
of  falling  into  serious  sin  after  the  one  forgiveness  of  baptism 
had  been,  as  it  were,  expended.  Constantine  himself  was 
not  baptized  until  his  last  illness.  In  not  a  few  cases  of 
persons  who  must  have  looked  forward  for  years  to  being 
baptized  some  time,  the  resolution  to  delay  the  administra- 
tion no  longer  concurred  with  inward  awakening :  it  be- 
tokened a  decision  to  surrender  themselves  at  once  to  the 
divine  call. 

Before  actual  baptism  a  period  of  preparation  in  the 
catechumenate  was  ordinarily  required.  To  seek  enrolment 
among  the  catechumens  was  an  expression  of  the  purpose  to 
be  baptized,  and  the  acceptance  of  a  neophyte  in  this  char- 
acter by  the  Church  was  equivalent  to  recognising  him  as  a 
quasi  Christian  {Ghristianum  facere).  It  was  accompanied 
by  ceremonies  of  signing  with  the  cross,  imposition  of  hands, 
a  preliminary  exorcism,  and,  in  the  West,  imparting  salt. 
The  candidate  was  expected  to  be  certified  as  to  character, 
etc.,  by  Christians  of  good  repute, — clergymen  often  under- 
took this  responsibility, — and  candidates  who  had  followed 
callings  which  the  Church  held  to  be  questionable  had  to  give 
them  up.  Slaves  were  expected  to  bring  testimonials  from 
their  masters.  The  period  to  be  spent  in  the  catechumenate 
was  not  very  definitely  fixed.  Some  canons  require  it  to  be 
not  less  than  two  or  three  years  {Nic,  can.  2  ;  Illiber.  42). 
But  the  practice  varied  very  much  according  to  circumstances. 
Persons  who  had  been  happily  situated  as  to  family  connec- 
tion and  opportunities  of  instruction  required  less  prepara- 
tion. On  the  other  hand,  a  long  time  might  be  spent  in 
the  catechumenate  by  those  who  shrank  from  the  responsi- 
bilities, or,  as  they  might  view  it,  the  risks  of  actual  baptism. 
Catechumens  who  were  taken  in  hand  for  special  and  final 
preparation,  in  order  to  be  baptized  at  a  definite  and  near 
day,  were  known  as  "  competentes."     For  example,  those  who 


313-451]         FESTIVALS,    CHURCH    SERVICES,    ETC.  447 

were  to  be  baptized  at  Easter  might  pass  into  this  class  at 
the  beginning  of  the  forty  days'  fast.  They  had  now  to  be 
fully  furnished  with  all  the  knowledge,  theoretical  and  prac- 
tical, that  a  Christian  ought  to  have,  and  special  exercises 
were  enjoined  with  a  view  to  chasten  and  discipline  the 
soul,  so  that  this  stage  of  the  catechumenate  required 
patience.^  The  instructions  were  crowned  by  the  communi- 
cation of  the  actual  words  of  the  creed,^  withheld  hitherto 
because  the  tendency  to  treat  Christian  mysteries  with 
careful  secrecy  was  at  this  time  in  full  force,  and  influenced 
the  treatment  of  catechumens.  In  many  churches  the  creed 
was  recited  by  the  catechumens  in  presence  of  the  congre- 
gation at  some  stage  shortly  before  baptism,  but  the  precise 
stage  varied.  In  large  towns  special  clergymen  might  be 
set  apart  for  this  work  of  instruction  or  preparation. 

Baptism  in  case  of  need  could  be  administered  at  any 
time,  but  the  regular  administration  of  it  took  place  at 
Easter  and  at  Pentecost.  Exceptions  were  naturally  made 
for  sick  persons  and  for  children,  but  as  late  as  Leo  i.,  and 
even  as  late  as  Gregory  the  Great,  a  disposition  is  evinced 
to  confine  the  ordinary  administration  to  the  two  seasons 
named.  But  in  both  East  and  West  Epiphany  became  an 
additional  baptismal  season.  And,  in  the  West,  Christmas, 
the  festival  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  those  of  Apostles  and 
Martyrs  were  also  signalised  in  this  way.  It  appears  that, 
for  a  time,  baptisms  of  children  were  made  to  conform  to 
those  appointed  periods  of  administration.  After  the  cate- 
chumenate had  passed  away,  and  infant  baptism  had  become 
universal,  special  seasons  for  baptism  ceased  to  be  observed. 

Children  even  of  Christian  parents  were  not  always  or 
necessarily  brought  to  baptism  at  this  time.  The  cases  of 
Basil  (probably),  Gregory  Naz.,  Chrysostom,  Jerome,  and 
Augustine    are    only   specimens.      But    the    severe    Augus- 

*  Greg.  Naz.  Orai.  xL 

*  With  the  formal  traditio  symholi  it  was  usual  to  connect  special  sermons 
suitable  to  the  occasion  (specimens  in  Aug.  and  elsewhere).  The  final  recita- 
tion by  the  candidates  was  the  reddilio  symholi.  Delivery  and  recitation  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer  also  had  a  place. 


448       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

tinian  view  of  the  state  of  unbaptized  infants  disposed  parents 
to  seek  baptism  for  them,  and  the  tendency  to  look  on 
ordinances  as  beneficent  charms  worked  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. Probably  also  the  place  conceded  to  Christianity  as 
the  public  religion  of  the  whole  community  operated  in  the 
same  way.  Infant  baptism  seems  to  have  become  already 
more  general  in  the  West  than  in  the  East.  The  presence 
of  sponsors  was  connected  with  infant  baptism,  but  they 
appear  also  in  connection  with  adult  baptism.  Augustine 
reports  it  as  usual  for  the  parents,  or,  in  the  case  of  orphans, 
the  grandparents,  to  present  the  children.  But  the  sub- 
stitution of  sponsors  prevailed.  And  as  the  relation  between 
sponsors  and  those  who  in  baptism  entered  on  the  new  life 
took  hold  of  men's  minds,  there  gradually  arose  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  cognatio  spiritualis.  This  entered  eventually  as 
an  important  element  into  the  determination  of  forbidden 
degrees  in  marriage. 

Considerable  variations  took  place  in  the  wording  of  the 
baptismal  confession.  The  earliest,  perhaps  (see  p.  73),  was 
that  short  form  which  preceded  the  later  and  fuller  Apostolic 
Creed  ;  it  is  best  known  to  us  as  the  old  Eoman,  but  probably 
existed  widely  with  little  variation.  Additional  clauses  were 
introduced  in  the  practice  of  various  churches  (Aquileia, 
Spain,  and  Gaul)  which  did  not  materially  alter  its  character. 
But  in  the  East  dogmatic  discussions  led  to  dogmatic  ampli- 
fications, as  in  the  creed  of  Caesarea,  and  that  of  Jerusalem. 
These  local  Eastern  creeds  were  gradually  supplanted  by  the 
Nicene,  though  this  in  its  genuine  form  could  hardly  have 
been  quite  appropriate  for  baptismal  uses.  Later  than  our 
present  period  the  Nicene  was  supplanted  by  what  was  be- 
lieved to  be  the  Constantinopolitan  form  (that  which  is 
received  as  Nicene  in  Anglican  and  other  prayer-books) ;  and 
this  form  was  for  a  time  received  for  baptismal  purposes  in 
Eome  and  in  Spain. 

In  connection  with  the  act  of  baptism,  the  old  renuncia- 
tion of  Satan,  and  the  affirmation,  in  reply  to  questions,  of 
faith  and  obedience,  continued.  In  the  baptistery  the  candi- 
date undressed,  was  anointed  with  oil,  again  asked  as  to  his 


313-451]  FESTIVALS,    CHURCH   SERVICES,    ETC.  449 

faith,  and  baptized  with  threefold  immersion,  except  in 
Spain,  where  one  only  was  used.  The  account  given  of  this 
Spanish  peculiarity  was  that  the  one  immersion  expressed 
the  essential  unity  of  the  Trinity,  as  against  Arianism.  The 
form  of  words  which  has  persisted  in  the  Greek  Church  is 
to  this  effect :  "  The  servant  of  God  (so  and  so)  is  baptized 
in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Amen,  and  of  the  Son,  Amen, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  Amen,  now  and  ever  more  and  to  all 
eternity.  Amen."  In  the  Latin  Church  the  threefold  question 
of  faith  was  mixed  up  with  the  threefold  immersion.  After- 
wards milk  and  honey  were  given,  as  to  a  new-born  child, 
salt  also  in  the  West ;  and  anointing  with  chrism  followed, 
betokening  anointing  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  the  East 
the  imposition  of  hands  continued  to  be  part  of  the  cere- 
monial of  baptism ;  but  in  the  West  it  was  reserved  to  the 
bishop,  and  eventually  developed  into  the  rite  of  confir- 
mation. 

As  regards  the  rites  which  should  be  reckoned  to  be 
sacraments,  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  are  mentioned 
by  Chrysostom  (in  Joh.  Eom.  84)  and  Augustine  {Serm.  218) 
as  the  sacraments  essential  to  the  Church.  But  the  term 
was  used  vaguely  and  with  various  applications.  For  in- 
stance, anointing  the  forehead  of  the  baptized,  ordination, 
marriage,  are  occasionally  so  termed.  Augustine  already 
suggests  the  later  doctrine  of  "  character  "  in  connection  with 
orders  and  with  baptism.  "  Character "  means  something 
distinct  from  grace,  imparted  even  when  no  grace  is  im- 
parted, not  lost  when  grace  is  lost.  The  communication  of 
this  "  something "  is  ascribed  to  the  two  rites  named,  and 
in  Eomish  theology  to  confirmation  also. 

E.    PREACHING 

Preaching  afforded  a  distinct  line  of  influence  by  which 
the  people  could  be  moved;  and  the  period  before  us  is 
distinguished  for  its  powerful  and  impressive  preachers. 
From  an  early  date,  probably  from  the  very  beginning, 
exhortation   by   the   presbyters   in    turn   had  followed   the 

29 


450       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

reading  of  the  appointed  passages  of  Scripture.  This  might 
to  some  extent  continue.  But  addresses  by  individual 
presbyters,  or  by  the  bishops,  now  generally  had  their  place 
at  the  catechumen  portion  of  the  service,  i.e.  before  those 
who  were  not  yet  baptized  were  dismissed.  Preachers  could 
be  heard,  therefore,  by  those  who  had  as  yet  no  connection 
with  the  Church.  Sometimes  another  discourse,  adapted  to 
believers,  followed  after  others  had  withdrawn.  In  this 
period  no  layman  could  preach,  however  learned  he  might 
be.  Presbyters  were  qualified  for  the  function,  but  in  some 
places  they  did  not  preach  if  the  bishop  were  present.  In 
other  places  the  bishop,  if  present,  followed  up  the  presbyter's 
address  with  some  words  of  his  own.  Bishops,  in  particular, 
were  expected  to  instruct  their  flocks  by  preaching,  and 
some  of  the  more  distinguished  might  preach  twice  on  a 
Sunday,  or,  as  in  Lent,  might  preach  daily.  Matins  and 
Vespers,  as  well  as  the  chief  Sunday  service,  afforded  oppor- 
tunities. 

Instead  of  the  homily  in  which  the  speaker  commented 
on  a  passage  of  Scripture,  suggesting  the  deeper  sense  and 
making  edifying  applications,  discourses  in  regular  form,  com- 
posed according  to  rules  of  Greek  rhetoric,  came  into  use, 
and  great  reputation  was  acquired  in  this  line  by  eminent 
preachers. 

All  manner  of  topics  might  be  treated  in  this  way,  from 
praise  of  Christian  celebrities  to  doctrinal  and  ethical  in- 
struction or  polemical  discussion.  As  the  service  otherwise 
proceeded  chiefly  in  set  forms,  the  sermon  gave  the  oppor- 
tunity to  the  minister  to  throw  himself  on  the  people,  with 
direct  appeal  suited  to  their  circumstances  or  to  those  of 
the  Church.  Great  preachers  were  zealously  attended,  and 
produced  deep  impression.  In  Constantinople  and  elsewhere 
the  habit  of  applauding  striking  passages  had  established 
itself. 

It  is  pretty  plain  that  while  presbyters  might  preach, 
many  of  them  did  not  feel  able  to  discharge  the  duty ;  in 
many  country  places  preaching  might  be  rare,  occurring 
only  when  the  bishop  or  some  qualified  clergyman  visited 


313-451]         FESTIVALS,    CHURCH   SERVICES,    ETC.  451 

the  place.  Even  in  towns  where  the  bishop's  church  was 
supplied  with  preaching,  it  would  not  follow  that  the  same 
held  of  the  other  churches.  Sozomen  (vii.  19)  makes  the 
remarkable  statement  that  in  Eome  neither  the  bishop  nor 
anyone  else  taught  in  the  church.  Probably  we  must 
assume  some  exaggeration  or  misunderstanding. 

In  the  East  the  brilliant  age  of  preaching  hardly  sur- 
vived the  fourth  century.  Basil  and  the  two  Gregories 
were  all  of  them  remarkable  in  this  department,  the  most 
distinguished  being,  perhaps,  Gregory  of  Nazianzus.  Chry- 
sostom  was  greatest  of  all.  His  fine  Greek  culture  and  his 
natural  gift  of  oratory  were  inspired  by  Christian  devoted- 
ness  and  sincerity ;  and  some  of  his  sermons  were  unsur- 
passed as  regards  the  immediate  effect  on  the  hearers.  In 
the  West  Augustine  introduced  into  preaching  an  experi- 
mental depth  and  a  practical  earnestness  which  gave  a  new 
character  to  preaching  in  that  part  of  the  Church.  Leo  i. 
of  Eome  and  Csesarius  of  Aries  may  be  named  as  following 
him,  though  not  with  equal  steps. 

F.   OBJECTS   OF  WORSHIP 

Middleton  (Conyers),  Letter  from  Rome,   1755 ;  J.  Dallseus,  adversus 
Latinorum  .  .  .  traditionemy  Genev.  1664. 

The  worship  of  saints  originated  chiefly  from  the  regard 
paid  to  martyrs.  As  Christians  commemorated  the  death 
of  friends  by  family  meetings  at  their  tombs,  it  was  natural 
that  the  graves  of  martyrs  should  be  visited  on  the  annual 
day  by  the  Christians  who  had  sympathised  with  their 
trial  and  victory.^  The  prevailing  sentiment  of  the  religious 
celebration  on  such  occasions  was  the  continued  Christian 
fellowship  between  the  departed  and  the  survivors ;  hence 
oblations  on  their  behalf  were  offered ;  in  the  prayer  before 
communion  the  departed  were  remembered  along  with  the 
living.  For  them  repose  was  asked,  and  indeed  participa- 
tion in  all  Christian  blessedness.  By  and  by  chapels  and 
churches  were  erected  over  their  graves.     The  impression 

^  Polyc.  Mart. ,  about  A.D.  156  ;  in  any  edition  of  Apostolic  Fathen, 


452       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

that  such  worthies  did  not  stand  in  need  of  these  supplica- 
tions does  not  seem  to  have  prevailed  down  to  the  end  of 
the  third  century  or  later.  Feeling  on  this  subject  became 
intensified  when  it  began  to  be  recognised  that  the  martyr 
age  had  passed  away.  Christians  were  conscious  that  the 
heroes  venerated  by  pagan  countries  and  cities  were  for 
them  replaced  by  the  martyrs  ^  who  had  overcome  in  the 
name  of  Christ.  Their  relics,  therefore,  were  more  than 
ever  valued ;  for  the  saint's  relics  brought  the  saint  himself 
near.  And  prayer  for  their  repose  began  to  seem  less 
appropriate ;  rather  prayer  that,  by  their  intercession,  we 
might  become  like  them,  was  the  fitting  attitude  to  take.^ 
Direct  appeals  to  the  dead  saints  to  intercede  for  us  are 
sanctioned  by  the  Cappadocians  and  by  Ambrose.  The 
tendency  could  not  but  be  strengthened  by  the  miraculous 
powers  claimed  for  relics  of  such  holy  persons.^  The 
appropriate  place  for  relics  in  any  church  was  under  the 
altar.  This  whole  development  became  very  popular,  and 
drew  the  people  in  large  numbers  to  the  festivals  connected 
with  it. 

It  was  natural  to  ascribe  like  spiritual  rank  to  others 
besides  martyrs, — to  eminent  servants  of  God  recorded  in 
the  New  Testament  and  in  the  Old,  and  also  to  venerated 
names  from  the  roll  of  worthies  commemorated  in  the 
diptychs  of  each  church.  In  this  way  a  large  choice  of 
patrons  was  opened  to  worshippers;  and  a  class  of  dead 
persons  was  set  up  about  whom,  as  individuals,  it  was  held 
that  the  Church  on  earth  was  entitled  to  assert  their 
salvation  to  be  certain.  But  no  oblations,  least  of  all 
the  eucharist,  were  offered  to  saints.  Augustine  insists  on 
this  distinction  in  vindicating  the  growing  veneration  of 
the  saints  from  the  taunts  of  heathen  controversialists.* 

For    a    considerable    time   the   Virgin    Mary    was    not 

'  Eus.,  Prasp.  Evang.  xiii. 

*  Aug.,  de  cura gerevda,  c.  13. 

*  Origen  had  made  important  suggestions  in  the  direction  of  imputing  to 
martyrdom  a  special  virtue  to  save  others.     Exhort,  ad.  mart.  50. 

^  C6U,  c  Maximo, 


313-451]  FESTIVALS,    CHURCH    SERVICES,    ETC.  453 

specially  prominent  in  this  connection.  Her  perpetual 
virginity  was  asserted  with  emphasis  against  those — such 
as  Helvidius  and  Bonosus — who  interpreted  New  Testa- 
ment statements  as  implying  that  she  was  the  mother  of 
our  Lord's  "  brethren."  ^  Also,  a  foolish  and  distasteful 
speculation  as  to  the  birth  of  our  Lord  Himself  was  sup- 
posed to  add  something  to  her  eminence,  and  received 
general  approbation.  Already  in  the  second  century  her 
place  in  the  order  of  grace  was  contrasted  with  that  of  Eve 
in  the  order  of  nature  and  in  the  history  of  the  fall.  Still, 
down  to  the  fourth  century  church  teachers  continued  to 
speak  of  her  as  not  free  from  faults  (Basil,  Ep.  260  ;  Chrys., 
Horn.  45).  But  in  the  fifth  century  Augustine  declines  to 
discuss  that  topic ;  and  when  the  Nestorian  controversy  had 
fastened  attention  on  her  unique  relation  to  our  Lord,  and 
suggested  that  above  all  other  saints  she  had  contributed  to 
human  salvation,  the  veneration  of  the  Virgin  began  to 
receive  an  immense  expansion.  It  is  not  certain  that  any 
church  was  dedicated  to  her  name  before  that  at  Ephesus, 
where  the  council  met  in  431,  and  which  was  then  newly 
built. 

It  was  not  unnatural  that  worship  of  angels  as  well 
as  saints  should  be  suggested,  but  as  yet  authorities  are 
divided.  Ambrose  sanctions  supplications  to  the  guardian 
Angel,  while  Augustine  rather  perceives  danger  in  it.^ 
But  the  practice  was  destined  to  gain  ground. 

G.    PICTURES   AND   ANGELS 

The  early  Church  was  jealous  of  associating  with 
worship  any  representations  of  sacred  persons  or  things. 
There  were  no  such  representations  in  churches  till  the 
fourth  century ;  and  when  they  began  to  appear,  they  met 
with    discouragement.^       Hence    in    the    catacombs,  where 

>  Jerome,  Comira  Helv.  a.d.  303.     Siricius  (on  Bonosus),  a.d.  392,  Ep.  9. 
'Ambrose,  De  Viduis,  9  ;  Aug.,  Conf.  x.  43.     See  also  Greg,  the  Great, 
m  canticum^  8  ;  Syn.  Laod.,  can.  35. 

'  C(mc.  Illib.,  c.  36 ;  Eus.,  Hist.  vii.  18  ;  Epiph.,  0pp.  ii.  317. 


454  THE    ANCIENT    CATHOLIC   CHUKCH     [a.d.  313-451 

Christian  art  makes  its  earliest  appearance,  the  embodiments 
of  Christ  are  at  first  symbolical  and  allusive ;  and  the  same 
applies  to  the  reliefs  of  Biblical  scenes  on  early  Christian 
sarcophagi.^  Late  in  the  fourth  century  and  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifth,  pictures  in  churches  begin  to  be  described, 
which  present  the  trial  and  death  of  martyrs  with  whom 
the  church  is  associated;  also  Biblical  scenes.  These  were 
not  intended  to  be  worshipped,  but  to  instruct  and  impress. 
And  just  because  our  Lord  is  the  object  of  worship,  there  is 
hesitation  in  representing  Him.  The  cross  occupies  the 
principal  place ;  or  Christ  is  represented  as  the  Lamb.  The 
first  presentation  of  Christ  pictorially  in  a  church  as  claim- 
ing the  veneration  of  His  people,  is  near  the  end  of  our  period 
in  the  church  of  St.  Paul  beyond  the  walls,  at  Eome. 
Kneeling  to  sacred  pictures  falls  later.  But  already  we 
begin  to  hear  of  pictures  which  claim  to  be  authentic 
portraits  (by  Luke,  for  instance),  or  to  which  miraculous 
powers  are  ascribed.  The  nimbus  begins  to  encircle  the 
head,  first  of  Christ,  then  of  saints.  The  usage  was  taken 
from  representations  of  heathen  gods,  and  also  of  the 
emperors. 

The  Nestorians  were  led  by  their  theology  to  withstand 
the  veneration  of  such  pictures.  They  imputed  to  their 
adversary  Cyril  of  Alexandria  the  blame  of  the  new 
enthusiasm  for  having  and  venerating  sacred  pictures,  and 
perhaps  the  date  of  Cyril  may  be  regarded  as  an  epoch 
in  this  matter.     The  great  debate  about  it  fell  much  later. 

The  subjects  of  this  and  of  the  preceding  section  reveal 
the  tendency  to  popularise  Christianity,  by  adopting  objects 
and  modes  of  worship  hitherto  regarded  as  characteristic  of 
paganism.  Tendencies  this  way  had  appeared  much  earlier 
but  had,  on  the  whole,  been  resisted.  They  were  now 
becoming  irresistible :  and  they  were  soon  to  be  regarded  as 
original  and  apostolic. 

*  Best  seen  in  the  Vatican  Museum  at  Eome, 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

Discipline 

Greg.  Nyss.,  Ep.  ad  Letoium,  0pp.  ii.  214.  Basil  Caesar.,  Epp.  53,  54, 
55,  160,  0pp.  iii.  Chrys.,  de  Poen.  Horn.  ix.  Augustin.,  Serm. 
351,  352.  Leo  i.,  Ep.  ad  episc.  Camp.  168.  Socr.,  Hist.  eccl.  v.  19. 
Sozom.,  vii.  16.  Bingham,  Chr.  Antiq.,  Book  xvi..  Works,  vol.  vi., 
1855,  Oxf.  Morinus,  de  discipl.  in  adm.  s.  poenitentice,  Par.  1651. 
G.  F.  Steitz,  d.  Rom.  Buss-sacr.,  Frankf.  1854.  Loening,  Geschichte 
des  deutschen  KirchenrechtSy  i.  1878. 

The  discipline  of  the  Church  has  already  been  adverted  to 
(p.  249).  Known  transgressions  of  a  flagrant  character 
incurred  separation  from  Christian  fellowship.  The  penitent 
was  restored  after  open  confession  and  a  period  of  public 
humiliation,  which  tested  the  sincerity  of  the  repentance, 
but  which  carried  with  it  also,  more  or  less,  a  sense  of 
penalty  inflicted  for  the  sin.  This  restoration  expressed  the 
Church's  charitable  confidence  that  the  penitence  was  real, 
and  that  the  sin  was  forgiven  by  God  and  ought  to  be 
forgiven  by  her.  Hence  it  came  to  be  the  symbol,  or  the 
outward  seal,  of  Divine  forgiveness  as  regards  those  sins ; 
and  as  a  tendency  to  lean  on  the  outward  and  the  sensible 
operated  strongly  in  this  age,  the  one  was  apt  to  be  identified 
with  the  other.  All  the  more  therefore  those  Christians 
who  were  betrayed  into  flagrant  transgressions  which 
happened  to  remain  concealed,  if  they  afterwards  came 
to  serious  thought,  might  infer  that  if  the  way  of  public 
confession  and  humiliation  was  God's  way  of  forgiving 
great  sins,  they  also  must  adopt  it,  in  order  to  be  sure  of 
their  own  sincerity  and  of  Divine  pardon.  It  is  true  that 
public  penitence  in  such  cases  must  bring  scandals  to  light 

455 


456       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

that  might  have  continued  buried;  and  the  matter  is  not 
prominent  in  the  earlier  period,  although  exhortations  to 
confess  are  not  wanting.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  not 
doubted  that  cases  of  great  sin  on  the  part  of  Christians  did 
remain  concealed,  unsuspected,  and  unconfessed.^ 

As  the  Church  extended  after  Constantino's  accession, 
and  the  fourth  century  verged  towards  the  fifth,  difficulties 
in  regard  to  discipline  increased.  The  principles  remained 
the  same,  but  the  churches  had  become  more  mixed.  They 
included  a  much  larger  number  of  persons  not  amenable 
to  principles  which  appealed  only  to  conscience.  Many 
sinners  did  not  confess  their  sins,  even  when  these  were 
not  absolutely  secret ;  there  was  less  scrutiny  of  Christian 
behaviour;  serious  Christians  who  became  aware  of  flagrant 
sins  of  others  did  not  inform  the  Church  or  the  church 
authorities,  partly,  perhaps,  because  of  the  difficulty  of 
producing  conclusive  proof,  still  more,  probably,  because  the 
duty  was  felt  to  be  invidious. 

At  the  same  time  discipline  came  to  be  regarded  less 
as  a  process  for  satisfying  the  Church — doing  right  to  her 
sensitiveness  as  to  her  own  character  and  calling — and  more 
as  a  means  of  chastising,  and  so  improving,  the  sinner. 
Both  of  these  views  had  been  combined  before,  now  the 
second  took  the  lead.  The  duty  of  confessing,  with  a  view 
to  forgiveness,  cases  of  greater  sins  which  had  remained 
concealed,  and  of  accepting  in  that  connection  the  Church's 
penitential  discipline,  was  still  pressed.  And  besides,  a 
larger  range  of  sins  came  to  be  contemplated,  especially 
from  this  point  of  view  of  benefit  to  the  individual  For 
guilt  might  be  incurred,  and  some  special  penitence  might 
be  called  for  in  cases  which  did  not  amount  to  murder,  or 
idolatry,  or  flagrant  acts  of  impurity ;  and,  on  the  one  hand, 
church  authorities  might  think  it  edifying  to  use  discipline 
to  restrain  such  lesser  sins;  on  the  other  hand,  penitent 
offenders  might  seek  it  for  the  peace  of  their  conscience. 
This  led  to  casuistical  determinations :  a  given  sin  might 
perhaps  be  treated  unreasonably  if  the  full  weight  of  the 
*  Tertullian's  tract,  De  Poenitentia,  deserves  to  be  read. 


313-451]  DISCIPLINE  467 

older  discipline  were  imposed ;  but  how  much,  then,  should 
be  reckoned  appropriate  ?  This  gave  new  prominence  to 
the  distinction  between  simple  a(j)opi>a-fi6^,  which  did  not 
contemplate  so  serious  a  separation,  and  might  only  entail 
the  later  stages  of  the  old  discipline, — not  the  earlier  and 
more  trying  ones, — and  the  more  serious  separation,  uttokott^ 
or  iravTeXrjf;  d<l>opcaiJL6<;,  which  might  either  be  appropriate 
to  a  penitent  who  had  very  scandalous  sins  to  confess,  or 
might  be  denounced  on  impenitent  men  whose  sins  were 
public,  to  terrify  and  restrain  them.  The  bishop  decided 
these  questions,  sometimes  deputing  a  cleric  to  examine  and 
report. 

The  effect  of  this  tendency  of  affairs  was  mixed.  Some 
people  complied  with  these  admonitions,  others  disregarded 
them,  others  still  accepted  separation  from  communion  with- 
out much  concern.^  For  example,  second  marriages  (which, 
of  course,  were  public)  were  legitimate  by  the  civil  law ;  but, 
though  their  validity  was  not  disputed,  they  were  liable  to  a 
certain  degree  of  disciplinary  visitation  by  the  Church's 
laws :  people,  then,  who  had  contracted  such  marriages 
might  accept  exclusion  from  the  communion  and  take  none 
of  the  steps  proper  to  bring  it  to  an  end.  The  same 
tendency  appeared  in  other  cases. 

In  this  connection  the  old  doctrine  of  "  one  repentance 
only  after  baptism"  gave  way.  Ambrose  and  Augustine 
still  cling  to  it,  but  in  the  East  it  probably  passed  into 
desuetude  in  the  fourth  century,  and  Sozomen  frankly 
recognises  the  fact  in  the  fifth.*  In  the  West  also  the  same 
change  took  place.  The  reason  is  plain ;  the  sinner  should 
be  encouraged  to  repent  more  than  once,  of  course  with 
such  precautions  as  may  impress  him  with  a  due  sense  of 
his  position. 

According  to  the  old  discipline  the  Church  knew  what 
the  sin  was  which  had  created  scandal,  and  iu  connection 
with  which  the  penitent  was  seen  supplicating  for  restoration. 
Now  the  fear  of  scandal,  through  multiplying  cases  of  con- 

^  Greg.  Nyss.,  I}p.  ad  Letoium,  0pp.  ii.  114. 
*  Sozom.,  vii.  16. 


458       tHE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

fession,  under  the  conditions  just  noticed,  began  to  press 
more  heavily  on  men's  minds.  Public  penitence  for  sins, 
which  otherwise  would  have  remained  unknown,  tended  to 
create  scandal  rather  than  to  remove  it.  By  degrees  there- 
fore steps  were  taken  to  secure  that  in  cases  of  hidden  sins, 
spontaneously  confessed,  the  penitent  in  passing  through  the 
stages  of  penitence  should  be  known  indeed  to  have  some- 
thing on  his  conscience,  but  without  disclosure  (except  to 
the  bishop  and  his  advisers)  of  what  it  was.  The  next 
step,  better  fitted  to  meet  the  difficulty,  was  to  appoint  the 
penitence  itself  to  be  transacted  privately.  It  had  still  to 
be  transacted  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  bishop,  who  closed 
the  case  finally  by  solemn  prayer  for  forgiveness,  and 
imposition  of  hands.  But  this  naturally  suggested  the 
expediency  of  going  a  step  further,  and  withdrawing  the 
performance  of  penitence  from  observation  in  all  cases. 

In  the  West  the  sanction  of  private  discipline  and 
reconciliation  appears  first  in  the  African  Church  from 
A.D.  360.^  Augustine  teaches  that  there  are  cases,  of  the 
graver  kind,  in  which  no  man  should  be  content  with 
private  reconciliation — those,  namely,  which  separate  from 
the  body  of  Christ.  Yet  he  owns  that  these  sins  were  so 
numerous  that  the  Church  did  not  venture  to  excommunicate 
the  laity  for  them,  nor  to  degrade  the  clergy.  He  accepts 
the  principle  Corri;piantur  secretins  quce  peccantur  secreiius 
{Sermo  82.  11,  see  also  351.  352). 

In  Constantinople,  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  century, 
a  presbyter  was  set  apart  to  look  after  this  department 
(TTpeo-^vTepo^  iirl  fieTavoia^).  His  business  was  to  confer 
with  those  who  had  committed  sins  for  which  church 
canons  prescribed  discipline,  and  who  desired  to  make 
satisfaction.  A  scandal  happened  to  become  public  in 
connection  with  the  administration  of  this  office,  and 
Nectarius  (who  succeeded  Chrysostom  in  the  see)  was 
advised  to  abolish  it.^     The  effect  appears  to  have   been, 

1  Council  of  ni;ppo,  Can.  30 ;  Carthag.,  iv.  (397);  but  see  Hefele  on  those 
councils,  vol.  ii. 
*  Sozom.,  y.  19. 


313-4511  DISCIPLINE  459 

that  while  discipline  still  proceeded  in  the  case  of  known 
transgressions,  people  were  left  to  their  own  discretion  as 
to  confessing  or  not  confessing  sins  which  had  not  become 
otherwise  known  to  the  Church.  The  sufficiency  of  personal 
and  private  repentance  in  such  cases  was  tacitly  recognised. 

Close  to  the  end  of  our  period  certain  bishops  in 
Southern  Italy,  in  the  view,  probably,  of  maintaining  the 
old  discipline,  and  of  infusing  into  it  some  salutary  pain, 
required  penitents  in  their  churches  to  read  publicly  a  list 
of  their  sins.  Leo  i.  reprehends  this  practice,  and  ordains 
a  more  prudent  proceeding  in  such  cases.  The  penitents, 
apparently,  were  still  to  appear  publicly,  but  their  sins  were 
not  to  be  published.^ 

In  all  these  instances  the  range  of  offence  contemplated 
is  by  no  means  that  which  is  comprehended  under  the  head 
of  "  mortal  sins "  according  to  the  later  theology  of  Kome. 
But  in  regard  to  such  sins  as  were  dealt  with,  the  tendency 
to  dispose  of  them  more  privately  is  gaining  ground. 
*  E]p,  168  :  Ad  Eyisco^os  Camijani(B, 


CHAPTER    XXVIir 

Augustine 

O'pera^  Benedictine  ed.,  Paris,  1679,  reprinted  by  Gaume,  Paris,  in 
11  vols.,  1838.  The  first  vol.  contains  Augustine's  Confessions  and 
the  two  books  of  Retradationes^  and  the  eleventh  contains  the  old  life 
by  Possidius,  bishop  of  Calama  (d.  after  437),  and  the  very  thorough 
biography  by  the  Benedictine  editors.  (The  new  text  of  Aug. 
0pp.  in  the  Vienna  Corpus  Scriptorum,  with  various  readings  and 
indices  but  without  other  apparatus,  is  not  yet  complete.  Migne's 
reprint  of  the  Benedictine  edition  is  contained  in  torn.  32-47  of 
the  Latin  series.) 

Tillemont,  M^moires,  vol.  xiii.,  2nd  ed.,  Paris,  1710 ;  and  all  the  Church 
Histories  and  works  on  Patristic.  Bohringer,  Kirchengeschichte 
.  in  BiographieUj  2nd  ed.,  ll*'^'^  Theil,  Zurich,  1878.  Poujoulat, 
Eistoire  de  S.  Augustin^  2  vols.  8vo,  Paris,  1843-1852.  Bindemann, 
Der  heil.  Augustinus,  2  vols.,  Berlin,  1844-1855.  K.  Braune, 
Monnica  u.  Aug.,  12mo,  Grimma,  1846.  P.  Schaff,  Life  and 
Labours  of  S.  Aug.,  London,  1851.  J.  Baillie,  S.  Augne.,  London, 
1859.  Gangauf,  Metaph.  Psychologie  des  Aug.,  Augsb.  1852.  Flottes, 
Etudes,  Paris,  1861.  Nourrisson,  Philosophic  de  S.  Av^ustin,  2  vols., 
2nd  ed.,  Paris,  1866.    A.  Dorner,  Augustinus,  Berlin,  1873. 

A  very  important  study  of  Augustine  is  contained  in  Harnack's 
Dogmengeschichte,  dritter  Bd.,  pp.  1-244.  See  also  specially  Keuter, 
Augustinische  Studien,  Gotha,  1887. 

Augustine  requires  a  chapter  to  himself.  From  the  time 
of  his  appearance  on  the  scene,  he  dominates  the  history  of 
the  Western  Church, — not  that  everyone  agrees  with  his 
teaching  or  submits  to  his  influence,  but  the  whole  situation 
takes  colour  and  character  from  him.  For  that  very  reason 
it  is  impossible  adequately  to  represent  the  man  or  his 
relation  to  his  age ;  but  something  may  be  indicated. 

He  was  born  at  Tagaste  in  Numidia  on  the  Ides  of  Novem- 
ber, 354.     The  father,  Patricius,  coarse,  secular,  impulsive, 

460 


A.D.  313-451]  AUGUSTINE  461 

and  no  longer  young,  became  a  catechumen  shortly  before  his 
death.^  The  mother,  Monica,  a  young  matron  of  twenty-two 
when  Augustine  was  born,  was  an  earnest  Christian  woman ; 
her  sincere  devoutness  was  associated  with  limited  knowledge, 
and  she  shared  the  popular  superstitions ;  but  one  can  gather 
that,  along  with  her  piety,  a  certain  native  right-mindedness 
and  good  sense  sustained  her  influence  over  her  son.^  The 
family  was  not  well  off,  but  friends  supplied  the  means  neces- 
"sary  to  enable  Augustine  to  prosecute  literary  and  philoso- 
phical studies  at  Carthage.  He  hoped  in  this  line  to  open  his 
way  to  what  might  be  called,  in  modern  language,  University 
or  Civil  Service  appointments.  Carthage  was  a  very  wicked 
place,  and  Augustine  tells  us  how  it  affected  him.  Eeligious 
impressions  from  his  mother's  influence  had  repeatedly 
touched  him  in  his  boyhood;  but  now  as  a  young  man  a 
long  course  of  wandering  from  the  right  way  was  before 
him.^  Manicheism,  with  its  doctrine  of  two  principles,  was 
vigorously  pushed  in  Africa  at  that  time,  and  Augustine 
became  an  "auditor"  among  the  Manicheans.  Their  teach- 
ing included  a  sharp  criticism  of  the  Christian  Scriptures, 
especially  the  Old  Testament;  it  appealed  to  reason  and 
experience,  in  the  old  Gnostic  manner,  for  its  conception  of  a 
radical  strife  between  two  principles  in  the  world  and  in 
men  individually.  Its  detail  of  doctrine  and  duty  was 
certainly  fantastic;  but  it  was  possible  to  regard  this  as 
only  the  form  of  a  secret  wisdom,  which  the  disciple  was 

*  He  must  have  died  before  Augustine  left  Africa. 

*  Aug.,  de  BecUa  Vita,  vi.  10.  16 ;  De  Ordine,  1.  31,  ii.  45,  etc.,  both  in 
vol.  i. 

*  Augustine  does  not  spare  himself.  It  is  right  to  say,  however,  that  he 
himself  speaks  of  his  recoil  from  the  coarse  revelry  of  his  fellow- students 
{Conf.  iii.  3).  The  main  fact  is  that  Augustine  eventually  formed  a  con- 
nection with  a  young  woman  (by  whom  he  had  a  son,  Adeodatus) — a  connection 
which  lasted  for  a  number  of  years  during  which  each  was  faithful  to  the  other, 
80  far  as  we  know.  Augustine  had  not  accepted  Christian  obligations ;  and 
such  a  connection  on  the  part  of  a  non-Christian  was  not  reckoned  indecent  or 
profligate.  But  Augustine  had  felt  the  claims  of  the  Christian  standard  of 
life,  which  his  mother  exemplified  ;  he  had  felt  also  the  appeal  of  the 
philosophers  to  rise  above  sense  ;  he  was  conscious  of  deliberately  living  below 
Ms  ideals  and  transgressing  his  duty,  in  this  instance  especially. 


462       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        U-D. 

eventually  to  reach,  and  in  which  the  mind  could  rest. 
Under  the  influence  of  this  hope  it  was  that  Augustine 
joined  the  sect.  The  step  implied  (1)  his  acceptance  of 
their  criticism  of  the  Scriptures  as  unanswerable;  (2)  his 
sense  of  the  need  of  a  positive  religion — if  it  was  not  to  be 
Christian  in  the  Catholic  sense,  it  must  still  be  a  positive 
religion ;  (3)  his  apprehension  of  a  conflict  between  evil  and 
good  which  required  to  be  strongly  affirmed  ;  and  (4)  he 
found  a  solace  for  his  conscience  and  his  self-esteem  in  the 
doctrine,  that  when  he  sinned  it  was  not  he  who  did  so,  but 
a  certain  alien  nature  in  him,  for  which  he  was  not  respon- 
sible. He  continued  for  a  number  of  years  to  have  some 
kind  of  connection  with  Manicheism ;  but  as  his  mind 
ripened  and  as  his  expectations  of  successful  insight  con- 
tinued to  be  disappointed,  the  connection  became  loose. 
Before  the  time  of  his  departure  for  Eome  (a.d.  383)  it 
had  become  mainly  nominal.  He  continued  still  to  be  a 
Manichean  only  until  he  should  find  something  better. 

But  other  influences  operated.  A  perusal  of  a  treatise 
of  Cicero  (the  Hortensius — now  lost — fragments  in  Orelli's 
edition)  stirred  his  mind  with  the  conception  of  a  career  not 
only  of  successful  speculation,  but  of  life  according  to  wisdom, 
aiming  at  the  highest  and  achieving  it.  This  thought  took 
possession  of  him  with  memorable  force.  It  did  not  reform 
his  life,  but  he  cherished  it  as  a  glorious  inspiration.  The 
goal  it  propounded  to  him  was  not  repudiated — only  post- 
poned. 

After  his  arrival  at  Eome,  where  he  occupied  a  post  as 
teacher  for  a  short  time,  and  after  his  transference  to  Milan 
(A.D.  384),  he  read  more  largely  in  the  philosophers,  found 
no  help  in  Aristotle,  but  was  greatly  impressed  and  attracted 
by  the  New  Platonists.  Their  conception  of  the  world 
seemed  to  bring  him  into  a  purer  air,  and  some  of  their 
principles  became  a  permanent  element  in  Augustine's 
thinking.  But  ere  long  the  claims  of  Christianity  as  em- 
bodied in  the  life  and  influence  of  the  great  Church  began 
to  press  on  him  with  fresh  power.  The  magnitude  and  the 
fruitfulness  of  this  unique  phenomenon  became  more  and 


313-451]  AUGUSTINE  463 

more  apparent  to  him :  his  mother  had  followed  him  to 
"Milan ;  the  preaching  of  Ambrose  attracted  him,  and 
gradually  dissipated  the  difficulties  about  the  Scriptures 
which  the  Manicheans  had  taught  him  to  cherish.  He 
began  to  read  systematically  the  Epistles  of  the  Apostle 
Paul ;  he  listened  to  what  Christians  told  him  of  Christian 
conflict  and  decision.  Meanwhile  the  personal  question 
about  his  own  will,  and  the  goal  to  which  his  life  should  be 
directed,  came  home  to  him  irresistibly ;  he  felt  that  he 
had  been  all  his  life  miserably  and  inexcusably  wrong,  and 
that  he  was  still  enslaved  in  the  same  snare.  All  this  led 
to  the  memorable  day  (described  in  the  Gonf.  viii.  8.  12)  on 
which  the  struggle  ended,  and  he  passed  into  a  new  life. 
He  was  baptized  by  Ambrose  at  Easter  387  :  his  mother 
died  at  Ostia  near  the  end  of  the  same  year.  In  388 
Augustine  finally  left  Eome  and  returned  to  Africa.  He 
planned  for  himself  a  retired  and  meditative  existence  on  his 
little  inheritance  at  Tagaste.  Ere  long  he  was  constrained 
to  become  presbyter  and  afterwards  bishop  at  Hippo  Eegius 
(395).     He  died  there  in  August  430. 

Augustine's  nature  compelled  him  to  think  through  his 
beliefs  and  his  experiences ;  and  no  one  in  the  early  Church 
was  more  intent  than  he  ^  on  reducing  to  the  unity  of  a 
coherent  and  consistent  system  the  various  elements  of  the 
worlds  of  nature  and  of  revelation  as  these  presented  them- 
selves to  the  believing  and  Repentant  man.  He  believed  in 
the  function  of  reason  and  in  the  unity  of  truth.  But 
Christianity  as  it  now  possessed  him  was  great  and  deep. 
Also  in  connection  with  it  there  came  to  him,  on  various 
lines,  a  wealth  of  suggestion  and  impression  that  placed  him 
in  relation  to  many  forms  of  thought.  He  accepted  with 
pious  docility  whatever  seemed  to  be  the  teaching  of  the 
Church,  not  only  as  expressed  in  formal  creed,  but  as 
embodied  in  the  prevailing  attitude  of  Christian  minds,  and 
in  the  prevailing  sentiment  of  Christian  life  and  worship. 
He  appropriated  from  Scripture  great  thoughts  to  which  he 
strove   to   do  justice.      He   took  something  from  all  the 

*  A  remark  of  Harnack's. 


464       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

Christian  schools  of  the  West,  from  Irenseus,  from  Tertul- 
lian,  from  Cyprian,  from  Hilary,  from  Victorinus,  re-shaping 
all  he  took.  He  had  drunk  deep  of  the  Neoplatonic 
teaching;  and  while  he  guarded  against  its  mystic  pan- 
theism, he  had  thoughts  of  God  and  of  goodness,  of  the 
metaphysic  of  evil,  and  of  the  possible  attainment  of 
believing  souls,  for  v^hich  he  availed  himself  of  Neoplatonic 
forms.  Not  even  Augustine  could  really  reconcile  and  unify 
these  various  elements ;  and  he  was  fain  to  resort  to 
dialectical  plausibilities  when  true  and  inward  harmony 
failed.  This  is  one  of  the  features  which  connect  him  with 
the  schoolmen.  But  the  strong  grasp  of  the  thinker  com- 
pressed all  at  least  into  types  that  could  live  together  in  his 
mind;  all  was  moulded  into  Augustinian  forms  which 
challenged  the  attention,  which  caught  the  ear  and  the  heart 
of  many  generations.  The  central  force  of  the  whole  lies  in 
his  consciousness  of  the  difference  between  life  without  God 
in  pride,  self-sufficiency,  and  worship  of  the  creature,  and 
life  with  God  in  faith  and  love  and  hope.  Of  this  last  the 
decisive  principle  is  Love — for  Augustinian  grace  is  the 
Love  of  God  (i.e.  towards  God)  shed  abroad  in  the  heart  and 
making  all  new.  Augustine's  greatness  has  many  elements ; 
but  chiefly  it  stands  in  the  vividness,  profoundness,  and 
decisiveness  of  his  conception  of  religion,  or  of  the  life  of 
God  in  the  soul  of  man. 

Augustine's  circumstances  led  him  (after  some  essays 
meant  to  bring  him  to  an  understanding  with  himself  as  to 
valid  method  of  thought)  to  write  on  the  Eeason  of  Christian 
Faith.  At  the  same  time  he  developed  the  argument  against 
the  Manicheans,  and  he  found  it  expedient  to  resume  this 
theme  from  time  to  time.  His  experience  at  Milan  before 
and  after  his  conversion  had  interested  him  in  Arianism, 
and  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  His  work  on  the 
Trinity  is  the  chief  monument  in  this  department.  Its 
characteristic  is  the  strong  assertion  of  the  fundamental 
equality  of  the  Divine  Three,  in  virtue  of  their  common 
possession  of  the  unique  Divine  Nature  and  of  all  its  attri- 
butes.    On  this  subject,  bating  some  refinements,  the  ten- 


313-451]  AUGUSTINE  465 

deucy  at  least  of  his  thinking  has  been  generally  followed  in 
the  West. 

His  maturer  thoughts  on  his  own  life  and  his  conversion 
came  out  in  the  Confessions,  in  which  he  utters  before  God 
what  he  remembered  and  felt  in  regard  to  it — passing  on  in 
the  later  chapters  to  less  personal  meditations.  His  doctrine 
of  the  Church  was  elaborated  in  his  controversy  with  the 
Donatists.^  His  conception  of  the  world's  history  as  a  scene  of 
divine  permission  and  purpose — suggested  by  the  difficulties 
of  those  who  were  losing  faith  in  God  amid  the  calamities  of 
the  time — is  embodied  in  the  great  work  de  Cimtate  Dei, 
which  occupied  him  occasionally  during  many  years  in  the 
later  period  of  his  life.  The  questions  suggested  by  countless 
phases  of  Christian  discussion,  and  a  great  series  of  Biblical 
topics,  are  taken  up  in  his  letters,  and  in  many  tracts  as 
well  as  in  his  sermons.  The  Pelagian  and  Semi-Pelagian 
controversies  elicited  during  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life 
the  mass  of  writing  which  fills  the  famous  tenth  volume  of  the 
Benedictine  edition  and  many  letters  and  sermons  besides. 

All  the  practical  questions  connected  with  conduct,  those 
which  arose  in  connection  with  asceticism,  with  Christian 
morals,  with  discipline,  must  be  added  to  these.  For  in  one 
shape  or  other  all  the  Christian  interests  appealed  to  Augus- 
tine, or  were  pressed  upon  him.  We  have  seen  how  the 
Christian  ethic  had  suffered  in  depth  and  thoroughness  from 
the  all  but  universal  acceptance  by  Christian  teachers  of 
the  form,  and  much  of  the  substance,  of  the  philosophic 
thinking  upon  virtue.  It  cannot  be  said  that  Augustine 
emancipated  himself  from  all  the  effects  of  this  state  of 
things.  And  yet  he  left  his  stamp  on  every  item  of  the 
discussion;  for  with  him  it  was  instinctive  to  seek  the 
religious  roots  of  ethical  questions.  In  doctrine  and  in  duty 
aHke  men  were  conscious  that  Augustine's  way  of  thinking 
wrought  a  new  depth  and  strength  into  Christian  argument. 
Hence  also  his  phrases  fastened  themselves  on  his  readers ; 
and  many  sayings  that  bear  the  mark  of  his  mint  have 
passed  current  among  men  ever  since. 

»  See  aiiU,  Chap.  XXIV. 
30 


466       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

What  might  be  said  of  his  attitude  on  the  Pelagian 
question  will  come  more  appropriately  in  next  chapter. 
Here  we  may  notice  the  impression  that  a  Manichean  taint 
continued  to  keep  possession  of  him  after  he  had  renounced 
Manicheism  and  had  become  a  Catholic  Christian.  This 
has  been  often  said,  but  it  is  ungrounded.  The  dehberate 
doctrine  of  Augustine,  from  the  time  he  renounced  Mani- 
cheism, laid  a  strong  emphasis  on  the  goodness  of  every 
created  existence  as  it  proceeds  from  the  hand  of  God ;  and 
his  theory  of  evil  (the  negative  theory)  was  meant  to  har- 
monise with  that  position  and  to  guard  it. 

The  only  plausible  way  of  supporting  the  assertion  is  to 
say  that  Augustine's  view  of  the  solidarity  of  the  race,  and 
of  the  effects  of  the  fall,  introduces  into  human  existence  a 
fate  operating  adversely,  as  much  as  does  the  Manichean 
doctrine  of  an  originally  evil  nature,  the  qualities  of  which 
can  never  alter,  forming  part  of  the  constitution  of  man. 
But  if  reasoning  of  this  kind  is  admitted,  Manicheism  may 
be  charged  on  John  Cassian  himself.  For  he  too  admitted 
that  without  Christian  revelation  and  ordinances  men  could 
not  recover  themselves  from  the  effects  of  the  fall,  nor  from 
the  penal  consequences  of  sin.  Man  in  these  circumstances 
can  be  described  as  subject  to  an  adverse  fate.  But  the 
fact  of  sin  as  it  attaches  to  the  race  and  the  individual, 
and  the  effects  of  it,  is  a  great  subject  of  discussion  which 
cannot  be  avoided  in  Christian  theology ;  and  the  imputation 
of  Manicheism  gives  no  help  towards  a  real  understanding 
of  the  problem. 

How  far  Augustine  transcended  the  teaching  of  his  pre- 
decessors— how  far  and  in  what  respects  he  gave  a  new 
significance  to  Christian  dogmas  and  struck  a  deeper  and 
truer  note  of  Christian  experience — how  far  again  he  limited 
or  perplexed  his  thinking,  either  by  following  too  un- 
reservedly single  lines  of  thought,  or  (much  more  obviously) 
by  the  effort  to  harmonise  the  incompatible,  and  by  the 
resolute  purpose  to  make  no  breach  with  the  authority  of 
the  Church, — these  are  topics  involving  a  bewildering  array 
of  questions,  and  they  cannot  be  entered  into  here.     It  is 


313-451]  AUGUSTINE  467 

certain  that  Angnstine  is  epoch-making,  and  that  the  the- 
ology and  the  religion  of  the  Western  Churches  have  never 
ceased  to  embody  great  results  of  his  life  and  work.  The 
central  force  lies  in  his  realisation  of  Sin  and  Grace, — Sin 
as  rebellion  against  God  and  separation  from  Him ;  Grace 
as  love  to  God,  a  disposition  in  which  the  heart  opens  to 
all  that  is  truly  good — a  disposition  the  beginning  and  con- 
tinuation of  which  is  itseK  the  manifestation  of  the  Love  of 
God  drawing  near  to  heal  and  to  hold  communion  with 
the  undeserving  and  the  undone.  How  from  this  centre 
Augustine  surveys  the  elements  of  the  worlds,  natural  and 
spiritual,  in  which  he  found  himself,  and  with  what  success 
or  failure  he  did  so,  is  one  of  the  historical  studies  which 
must  not  be  entered  on  in  a  paragraph.^ 

The  two  books  of  Retractationes  are  a  survey  by  Aug- 
ustine of  his  own  works,  correcting  or  completing  state- 
ments which,  on  reconsideration,  he  judged  to  be  inaccurate 
or  defective.  They  were  written  near  the  end  of  his  life 
(a.d.  427).  One  or  two  more  treatises,  however,  were  issued 
later,  and  therefore  do  not  appear  in  this  review. 

Augustine  died  of  a  fever  while  the  Vandals  were  besieg- 
ing Hippo.  During  the  closing  days  he  preferred  to  be 
much  alone.  The  penitential  psalms,  written  in  large  letters, 
were  hung  where  he  could  see  them.  He  died  28th  August 
430.     (See  note  in  Appendix.) 

*  The  questions  which  may  be  raised  regarding  this  central  element  in 
Augustine  are  very  frankly  suggested  by  Harnack  {DogmengescMcTUe,  ii. 
Theil,  2  Buch,  cap.  iii.,  Weltgeschichtliche  Stellung  Augustin's  als  Refor- 
mator  der  Christlichen  Frommigkeit),  and  are  well  deserving  of  attention, 
apart  from  the  success,  more  or  less,  to  be  ascribed  to  Hamack  in  dealing 
mth  those  questions.  The  whole  study  of  which  this  chapter  forms  a  part  is 
interesting,  especially  from  the  writer's  recognition  of  the  difficulty  of  master- 
ing the  complex  problem  presented  by  the  thought  and  the  influence  of 
Augustine. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

Pelagian  Conteoversy 

The  materials  bearing  on  this  subject  are  collected  in  the  tenth  volume 
of  the  Benedictine  edition  of  Augustine's  works  (reprint  by  Gaume, 
Paris,  8vo,  1838).  To  these  must  be  added  the  Letter  of  Pelagius  to 
Demetrias,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to  vol.  ii.  (p.  1380 
of  Gaume).  The  mind  of  Pelagius  himself  is  best  gathered  from 
this  letter.  His  Lihellus  fidei  (in  Ai^^.  to  vol.  x. ;  p.  2343  of  Gaume) 
is  cautious  and  defensive.  A  commentary  on  the  Epp.  of  Paul,  no 
doubt  by  Pelagius,^  is  reprinted  among  the  works  of  Jerome, 
vol.  V.  Ben.  ed.  It  has  been  purged  of  passages  too  conspicuously 
Pelagian,  but  is  still  worth  consulting.  To  the  works  of  Augustine 
contained  in  vol.  x.  are  to  be  added  various  letters,  sermons,  etc., 
of  which  a  list  with  references  is  given  vol.  x.  p.  2173.  The 
Commonitorium  of  Marius  Mercator  is  substantially  reproduced  in 
App.  to  vol.  X.,  also  the  documents  connected  with  the  various 
ecclesiastical  proceedings.  The  series  extends  over  the  Semi-Pelagian 
controversy  to  the  Synod  of  Orange,  a.d.  529.  The  works  of  Prosper 
are  added  in  a  third  Appendix.  G.  F.  Wiggers,  Pragmatische  Ba/r- 
stellung  des  Augustinismus  u.  Pelagianismus,  Hamb.  1833.  Julius 
Miiller,  Pelagianismus,  Berli  n,  1 854.  Fr.  Worter,  Der  PelagianismuSt 
u.s.w.f  Freiburg,  1886.  W.  Cunningham,  Hist,  Theol.y  Edinburgh, 
1863,  voL  i 

The  Pelagian  controversy  begins  about  A.D.  410,  and  its 
echoes  were  still  audible  more  than  twenty  years  after. 
Morals  as  against  religion,  free  will  as  against  grace,  one 
may  add,  in  a  certain  sense,  reason  as  against  revelation, 

1  Considerable  retrenchments  of  the  text  must  have  taken  place,  but  the 
commentary  represents  the  mind  of  Pelagius,  and  is  interesting  in  various 
ways.  It  shows,  for  example,  how  much  of  apostolic  Christianity  Pelagias 
could  appropriate,  under  his  own  interpretation,  and  could  adjust  to  his  lead- 
ing principles.  It  shows  also  curious  results  of  the  Pelagian  position.  Texts 
which  Augustine  interpreted  as  describing  the  inward  grace  which  reforms  the 
inward  man,  Pelagius  habitually  refers  to  the  forgiveness  of  sins — ^because  lie 

468 


A.D.  315-451]  PELAGIAN   CONTROVERSY  469 

may  be  taken  as  a  short  account  of  the  interests  in  collision. 
Yet  not  only  were  both  sides  in  earnest,  but  on  the  Pelagian 
side  there  was,  at  tlie  outset,  no  consciousness  of  disloyalty 
to  the  Church  or  to  Christianity.  The  Pelagians  accepted 
the  creed  and  the  ritual;  and  they  believed  they  could 
strengthen  a  weak  side  of  the  Christianity  of  their  time. 
Pelagius  (who  is  reported  as  a  native  of  Britain)  was  a 
monk,  unattached  apparently  to  any  convent.  The  staUlitas 
loci  was  not  yet  enforced  upon  monks.  He  took  up  his  abode 
at  Rome  before  the  fourth  century  ended,  or  at  latest  very 
early  in  the  fifth,  and  he  continued  to  live  there  till  he  fled, 
with  others,  from  Alaric's  invasion  in  A.D.  410.  He  was  a 
devout  and  blameless  man,  chiefly  anxious  to  see  a  more 
consistent  standard  of  practical  conduct  among  Christians. 
The  virtues  of  the  monastic  life  were  the  true  Christianity ; 
and  these,  or  some  distinct  approach  to  them,  should  be 
visible  in  all  Christians.  Instead  of  this  he  found  great 
laxity  and  worldliness,  and  for  him  the  question  was  how  to 
get  the  better  of  these  tendencies.  The  reputation  of  Pelagius 
as  a  religious  man,  who  had  powerfully  impressed  people  in 
Eome,  reached  Africa  a  considerable  time  before  he  appeared 
in  that  province  himself.^ 

Pelagius,  as  we  have  said,  accepted  current  Christianity : 
now,  in  his  view,  Christianity  itself  was  intended  to  teach, 
to  stimulate,  and  to  reward  morality,  that,  namely,  which 
was  recognised  in  the  more  earnest  circles  of  church  life. 
In  order  to  this,  one  must  enforce  the  maxim,  "  You  ought, 
therefore  you  can."  "When  I  treat  of  morals,"  he  said, 
"and  the  principles  of  holy  life,  I  make  it  my  first  business 
to  establish  the  capacities  of  human  nature,  and  to  show 
what  it  can  achieve :  for  the  mind  is  apt  to  be  remiss  and 

had  a  place  in  his  system  for  that,  while  he  looked  with  jealous  eyes  on 
Augustine's  **  grace."  Hence  in  some  places  the  commentary  assumes  the 
character  of  a  superficial  Lutheranism — though  scarcely  any  two  systems  could 
be  more  opposed. 

'  It  was  known  also  that  his  thinking  on  some  points  differed  from  Augus- 
tine's. A  bishop  had  quoted  to  him,  from  Augustine's  Confessions,  the  well- 
known  saying,  "Da  quod  jubes,  et  jube  quod  vis."  Pelagius  repudiated  the 
sentiment  almost  passionately. 


470       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

slow  to  virtue,  in  proportion  as  it  reckons  itself  unable,  if  it 
is  left  ignorant  of  its  inherent  power,  or  believes  itself  to 
have  none."^  The  assertion  of  ability  was  to  him  the 
obvious  way  to  sweep  aside  the  pretexts  on  which  men 
excuse  themselves,  and  to  force  them  to  face  their  obliga- 
tions. Nothing  in  Christianity  must  be  taken  in  a  sense 
that  interferes  with  this  fundamental  view.  Man  is  intrin- 
sically able  to  do  all  that  is  required  of  him,  if  he  pleases. 
But  Christianity  gives  him  additional  encouragement  and 
advantage,  because  it  supplies  an  initial  forgiveness  in 
baptism,  to  those  who  require  it,  and  because  it  promises, 
as  the  reward  of  virtue,  not  merely  a  happy  immortality, 
but  something  more  eminent  which  Pelagius  distinguished 
as  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  We  are  not  therefore  "  fallen 
in  Adam " :  Adam's  fall  concerned  himself.  Undoubtedly 
men  can  throw  away  their  possibilities,  and  they  often  do. 
But  Christianity  has  come  to  illuminate  and  exhort  us  so 
that  we  may  no  more  have  any  excuse  for  doing  so.  It 
agreed  with  these  positions  to  hold,  as  Pelagius  did,  that 
without  Christianity  men  may  avoid  sin  and  earn  immortal 
blessedness,  and  that  they  often  have  done  so.  Christ 
therefore  came  not  to  quicken  the  dead,  nor  even  to  heal  the 
(morally)  sick,  but  to  enhance  the  good  of  nature  by  clearer 
light  and  fairer  prospects.  These  tenets  indicate  some  in- 
fluence from  Eastern  modes  of  thought  deriving  from  the 
Apologists.  And  more  than  one  circumstance  in  the  history 
of  Pelagius  suggests  that  a  connection  with  the  East  may 
have  existed  before  his  residence  in  Eome. 

Various  church  historians  have  remarked  that  the  con- 
fident assumption  by  Pelagius  of  complete  power  on  the  part 
of  men  to  be  what  God  would  have  them  to  be,  indicates  a 
mode  of  view  which  could  obtain  only  in  a  mind  free  from 
the  conflict  of  strong  passions,  in  sympathy  with  moral 
order,  and  which  had  found  that  steady  self-control  could 
establish  habits  of  conduct  not  easily  overthrown.  By  such 
minds  the  effort  to  win  their  own  respect  and  that  of  others 
by  superior  morality  is  often  undertaken  with  sincerity,  and 

'  Ep.  to  Demetrius,  Aug.  0pp.  x.  App. 


313-451]  PELAGIAN    CONTROVERSY  471 

the  aim  is  felt  to  have  a  strong  and  growing  attraction. 
But  the  consciousness  of  success,  on  Pelagian  terms,  requires 
for  its  existence  a  narrow  and  external  view  of  duty.  Tlie 
breadth  and  depth  of  the  commandment  must  be  concealed, 
if  satisfaction  as  to  the  fulfilment  of  it  is  to  be  maintained. 

4mong  the  adherents  whom  Pelagius  attached  to  him- 
self at  Rome  was  Ccelestius,  also  a  layman,  apparently  a 
man  who  led  a  studious  life.  He  was  more  impulsive  and 
disputatious  than  his  leader.  Somewhat  later  (about  A.D. 
418)  Juhanus,  the  young  bishop  of  Eclanum,  embarked  in 
the  same  cause,  and  eventually  parted  with  his  See  that  he 
might  maintain  his  principles.  He,  too,  demanded  well- 
regulated  life,  but  conceived  it  less  from  the  monastic  and 
more  from  the  philosophic  point  of  view.  He  matched 
himself  against  Augustine  in  detailed  discussion  of  the 
questions  raised,  and  proved  to  be  an  able  and  resolute 
disputant.^ 

Pelagius  and  Ccelestius  came  into  Africa  about  a.d.  410. 
Pelagius,  after  exchanging  letters  with  Augustine,  soon  passed 
on  to  the  East,  but  Ccelestius  remained.  He  propagated  his 
opinions  with  zeal,  and  also  asked  to  be  made  a  presbyter. 
Paulinus  of  Milan  interposed  with  a  challenge  of  the  doc- 
trinal opinions  of  Ccelestius :  a  council  was  called  at  Carthage, 
the  explanations  of  Ccelestius  were  not  reckoned  satisfactory, 
and  he  was  separated  from  the  Church.^  He  departed  to 
the  East,  and  succeeded  in  procuring  presbyter's  orders  at 
Ephesus.  The  discussion  awakened  interest  in  Africa,  and 
Augustine  began  to  preach  and  write  on  the  subject — at 
first  refraining  from  mentioning  any  names. 

*  The  family  of  Julianus  were  among  the  private  friends  of  Augustine, — 
and  there  were  ties  also  with  Paulinus  of  Nola.  Paulinus  was  a  poet,  and  we 
have  an  Epithalamium  from  his  pen  in  connection  with  the  marriage  of 
Julianus,  then  only  a  lector,  to  a  lady  named  la.  The  father  of  Julianus  was 
also  a  bishop,  named  Memor. 

*  Errors  charged — 1.  Adam  was  created  mortal,  and  would  have  died  apart 
from  sin.  2.  His  fall  injured  himself  alone.  3.  Children  are  bom  in  the 
same  state  in  which  Adam  was  before  he  fell.  4.  The  law  as  well  as  the 
gospel  leads  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  .5.  Even  before  Christ  there  were 
sinless  men.  These  are  the  chief  points,  Mansi,  iv.  289.  Augustine  was  not 
present  at  this  council. 


472  THE    ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH  [a.d. 

Pelagius  had  found  his  way  to  Palestine.  In  415  he 
was  accused  before  a  synod  presided  over  by  John  of 
Jerusalem,  and  also  before  a  synod  at  Diospolis  presided 
over  by  Eugenius  of  Csesarea.  The  real  accuser  was  Orosius, 
a  young  Spaniard,  who  had  letters  from  Augustine.  The 
explanations  of  Pelagius  were  accepted  by  the  council ;  the 
accusation  therefore  failed.  At  this  point  Jerome  comes 
upon  the  scene.  He  did  not  hold,  and  probably  did  not 
understand,  the  scheme  of  Augustine,  but  he  recoiled  from 
the  Pelagian  extremes ;  he  had  a  strong  desire  to  cultivate 
the  friendship  of  Augustine,  and  he  seems  also  to  have  had 
some  ground  of  personal  irritation  against  Pelagius.  He 
now  came  out  with  an  attack  on  Pelagianism,  which  has  not 
been  reckoned  of  much  importance.^ 

The  African  Church  was  not  disposed  to  allow  its  sen- 
tence to  be  virtually  reversed  by  these  proceedings,  which, 
besides,  seemed  to  them  to  be  due  to  misapprehension.  In 
416  two  synods,  at  Carthage  and  Mileve,  renewed  the 
former  judgment,  and  also  communicated  their  proceedings 
to  Innocent  i.  of  Eome — who  confirmed  the  sentence  of  the 
African  synods.  Innocent  died  in  4 1 7.  A  lilellus  fidei  which 
Pelagius  had  sent  him  did  not  reach  Eome  in  time.  It 
came  into  the  hands  of  Zosimus  his  successor,  and  Coelestius 
also  appeared  in  Eome,  putting  forth  explanations  which 
satisfied  Zosimus.  The  latter  thereupon  issued  a  letter  to 
the  African  bishops  vindicating  the  accused,  whose  condem- 
nation he  ascribed  to  misunderstanding  and  overhaste. 

On  this,  two  African  synods  met  in  417  and  418  and 
afresh  defined  their  doctrine  against  Pelagius.  A  rescript 
from  the  emperor  was  also  procured  in  the  same  sense,  and 
subjecting  the  offenders  to  civil  censure.  Zosimus  on  this 
changed  his  attitude  and  issued  an  encyclical  to  all  bishops, 
anathematising  Pelagius  and  Coelestius,  and  sanctioning  the 
African  teaching.  This  encyclical  was  to  be  subscribed  by 
bishops,  and  those  who  refused  were  to  be  deposed  and 
banished.  Eighteen  Italian  bishops  incurred  these  penalties, 
but  not  all  of  them  persisted  in  their  opposition.     The  most 

^  In  a  letter  to  Ctesiphon  [Ep.  133)  and  in  a  Dialogus  c.  Pelagium. 


313-451]  PELAGIAN   CONTROVERSY  473 

distinguished  was  Julian,  already  mentioned ;  the  most  ela- 
borate controversial  efforts  of  Augustine's  remaining  years  ^ 
were  called  forth  by  works  of  Julian,  who  maintained  his 
ground  with  great  acuteness. 

The  Pelagian  leaders  sought  refuge  again  in  the  East, 
where  they  could  find  a  large  measure  of  indifference  on 
the  questions  in  dispute,  and  some  positive  sympathy.  They 
are  found  in  Constantinople  in  429  when  Nestorius  was 
Patriarch.  He  endeavoured  to  befriend  them — but  the 
Emperor  Theodosius  li.  saw  no  cause  to  interfere  with  a 
definitive  sentence  of  the  Koman  see,  and  ordered  the  accused 
to  leave  the  city.  At  the  oecumenical  council  of  Ephesus 
in  A.D.  431,  Pelagianism  was  condemned  along  with  other 
heresies.^ 

Assuming  that  human  salvation  either  involves  a  state 
of  conformity  to  the  Divine  will,  or  that  it  is  conditioned  on 
this  as  a  previous  attainment,  the  question  in  hand  throughout 
this  debate  has  regard  to  the  power  of  man  to  attain  to  this 
state,  or  the  kind  and  degree  of  aid  he  needs  with  a  view  to 
it.  If  Christian  religion  is  designed  to  promote  the  attain- 
ment, the  question  comes  to  be,  What  kind  and  degree  of  aid 
does  that  religion  propose  to  impart  ? 

The  writings  of  previous  church  teachers  presented  a 
good  deal  of  variety  in  the  statement  of  these  topics ;  for,  in 
general,  men  had  been  content  to  oscillate  between  two 
poles,  as  the  immediate  practical  object  might  suggest, 
without  committing  themselves  to  anything  very  conclusive. 

*  Contra  Julianum  and  the  Opus  imperfectum^  which  was  still  in  hand  when 
he  died. 

2  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  council  examined  the  subject ;  and 
it  is  generally  said  that  the  disposition  to  show  the  Pelagians  some  favour, 
evinced  by  Nestorius  in  429,  led  to  their  being  condemned  along  with  him. 
The  school  of  Antioch,  however,  really  leant,  at  least,  to  the  Pelagian  side, 
and  the  leaders  of  the  council  may  have  perceived  this.  See  ^AiroKpUris  irpbs 
Toin  dp9o56^ovs  in  works  of  Justin  Martyr,  with  Harnack's  argument  to  affiliate 
it  to  the  school  of  Antioch,  and  in  particular  to  Diodorus  of  Tarsus.  Texte  u. 
Untermchungen,  N.  F.y  vi.  4,  Leipz.  1901.  It  is  known  that  in  a.d.  419 
Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia  wrote  against  Jerome's  anti-Pelagian  tracts,  Ilpis  toj>s 
X^-yoyraj  0i/<ret  koX  oh  yvdfiij  rraUiv  Tods  dvOpthirovs.  Fragments  in  Marius 
Mercator. 


474       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHUECH        [a.d. 

Both  in  the  East  and  in  the  "West  the  assertion  of  free  will 
as  a  great  Christian  postulate,  and  as  the  correlative  of  duty, 
tended  to  sustain  the  thought  of  human  competency.  And 
in  the  East  the  Apologists  and  those  who  followed  them 
had  gone  very  far  in  this  direction.  And  yet  in  the  East 
as  well  as  in  the  West,  not  only  did  the  universal  prevalence 
of  sin  come  home  to  the  Christian  mind,  especially  to  some 
minds,  but  Christianity  as  a  redemption  implied  a  fallen 
state,  a  relation  to  sin  and  death,  which  was  dated  from 
Adam's  transgression.  That,  therefore,  had  influenced  all 
that  followed.  But  some  made  as  little  as  possible  of  this 
bias  in  human  nature,  others  dwelt  on  it  more  freely.  In 
general  a  certain  feebleness,  darkness,  and  liability  to  the 
insidious  attacks  of  evil  spirits  were  the  categories  dwelt 
upon.  It  may  be  said  that,  as  a  rule,  in  making  their 
statements  men  were  chiefly  on  their  guard  against  saying 
anything  that  might  involve  the  assumption  of  an  evil 
nature.  Corruption  or  depravity  of  the  race  was  therefore 
not  willingly  contemplated.  Yet  a  taint  of  this  kind  is 
recognised  by  some  writers ;  and  a  consciousness  of  it  tinges 
the  language  even  of  those  by  whom  a  formal  doctrine  of 
depravity  would  not  have  been  willingly  recognised.^ 

In  the  West,  however,  as  we  have  seen,  a  more  pro- 
nounced doctrine  of  the  joeccatum  originis  had  shaped  itself. 
A  bias  to  evil  in  human  nature  operating  since  the  fall  was 
recognised,  and  against  this  the  grace  of  Christ  was  set  as  a 
counteracting  force.  This  is  prominent  in  the  teaching  of 
Tertullian,  and  it  is  distinctly  recognised  by  others.  This 
carried  with  it  a  deeper  sense  of  the  tragedy  of  human  sin, 
and  of  the  conflict  of  opposing  forces  in  human  hearts. 
Yet  those  who  taught  so  did  not  conceive  themselves  to  have 
parted  with  the  great  commonplace  of  free  will.  That  con- 
tinued through  all  earthly  conditions,  carrying  with  it  always 
its  possibilities  of  good  and  of  evil.     But  in  the  West  these 

^  In  connection  with  this,  note  how  Augustine  himself  sums  up  the  obstacles 
to  goodness  in  ignorantia  and  difficulias.  De  Lib.  Arb.,  quoted  De  Naiura  et 
Gratia,  81,  and  often  elsewhere.  Sometimes  for  the  second  member  we  have 
infirmitas. 


313-451]  PELAGIAN    CONTROVERSY  475 

wrought  a  deeper  sense  of  the  potency  of  evil  in  men,  as 
needing  succour,  and  more  definite  impressions  of  Divine 
grace  as  a  positive  restoring  and  upholding  force  at  work 
within  the  soul.  A  little  before  the  period  of  Augustine's 
activity,  Ambrose  had  given  fresh  and  emphatic  expression 
to  this  conviction. 

Pelagius  considered  this  whole  department  of  thought  to 
be  perfectly  open,^  as  far  as  church  authority  was  concerned ; 
and  he  judged  himself  to  be  serving  the  interests  of  religion 
in  striving  to  sway  the  Christian  mind  to  one  side — that 
which  magnified  human  power  and  minimised  the  need  of 
grace.  Augustine  regarded  this  as  a  denial  of  the  very 
genius  of  Christian  religion.  Man's  sin  was  separation 
from  God  into  idolatry  of  self  and  of  the  creature :  degrees 
of  more  consistent  morality  availed  nothing  to  alter  that : 
from  God  alone  could  come  the  reconciliation — the  consent 
to  God  and  the  love  to  God  which  are  decisive,  which  set  a 
new  goal  and  make  a  new  life ;  and  nothing  less  than  this 
is  the  benefit  which  Christ  brought  to  light.  In  the  early 
stages  of  the  debate  much  of  Augustine's  pleading  is  to  this 
effect.  Surely  Christianity  is  a  religion  of  men  that  pcay : 
surely  as  Christians  we  find  ourselves  asking  for  that  which 
we  cannot  achieve  for  ourselves,  which  we  cannot  earn  and 
do  not  deserve. 

Augustine  had  written  in  defence  of  free  will  against  the 
Manicheans,^  and  he  continued  to  maintain  it  as  essential  to 
moral  responsibility.  The  whole  scheme  of  Augustine  pre- 
supposes and  requires  a  real  free  will'  as  the  point  of 
departure.  But  it  appeared  to  him  that  the  great  fact  of 
the  fall  must  and  does  create  new  conditions  for  the  sinning 
will :  and  free  will  so  conditioned  can  never  do  the  work  of 
grace.  Asserting  the  dependence  of  man  and  the  supremacy 
of  grace,  Augustine  accepted  the  full  responsibilities  of  his 

*  Libellusfidei  (in  App.  to  vol.  x.  of  Aug.). 

'  De  Libera  Arhitrio,  0pp.  i.  One  of  the  three  boolcs  was  Nvritten  in  388, 
the  second  and  third  not  till  395.  The  distinction  between  the  un  fallen  will 
and  the  fallen  is  most  obviously  present  to  his  mind  in  the  last.  See  Retract. 
i.  9.  The  same  subject  was  touched  in  an  interesting  way  in  de  Ordiiie^ 
written  before  his  baptism. 


476       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

assertion.  The  whole  history  of  nature  and  grace  required 
to  be  accounted  for ;  and  Augustine  reckoned  himself  bound 
to  present  a  concatenated  explanation  ranging  over  the 
immense  array  of  questions.  Each  side,  in  fact,  undertook 
to  present  a  connected  theory.  That  hitherto  untried  ex- 
periment, it  seemed,  could  not  be  declined. 

Not  many  Christians  have  followed  Pelagius.  But  at 
three  points  in  the  remarkable  system  of  Augustine  vehe- 
ment contest  has  arisen  among  men,  on  both  sides  earnestly 
Christian :  1  st,  as  to  the  explanation  and  the  effects  of  original 
sin ;  2nd,  as  to  the  certain  operation  of  grace ;  3rd,  as  to 
the  Divine  election :  and  many  experiments  of  theory  have 
been  tried  to  solve,  or  to  assuage,  or  to  veil,  the  difficulties. 
There  seems  no  likelihood  that  this  division  will  pass  away ; 
for  though  minor  eccentricities,  both  of  Augustinians  and  of 
anti-Augustinians,  have  ceased  to  be  interesting,  yet  the 
tendency  either  way  remains.  This  perhaps  may  be  said, 
that  those  who  feel  bound  to  divide  the  work  of  grace 
between  the  two  agents,  God  and  man,  must  lean  to  the 
anti-Augustinian  side,  while  those  who  recognise  it  as  wholly 
God's,  and  at  the  same  time  wholly  man's,  sympathise  with 
Augustinianism.  As  for  Augustine,  without  undertaking  to 
comment  on  his  great  system,  it  may  be  added  here  that  in 
arguing  it  out  he  came  at  last  to  a  point — the  grounds  of 
God's  election — at  which  he  recognised  sheer  mystery;^ 
he  continued,  notwithstanding,  to  believe  in  perfect  wisdom 
and  goodness,  but  he  could  do  nothing  to  expound  them. 
Perhaps  mystery  should  have  been  recognised  and  allowed 
to  replace  assertion  and  argument  at  earlier  points  of  his 
scheme.  For,  indeed,  the  very  first  step — free  will  in  a 
creature — is  a  certain  fact,  no  doubt,  but  an  inexplicable 
mystery.  Yet  a  wise  student  will  be  thankful  to  the  great 
masters  who  have  overreached  themselves  in  the  effort  to 
theorise  the  relations  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  world.  At 
this  point  and  at  that,  principles  and  analogies  may  have 
been  strained  in  the  effort  to  present  a  scheme.  But  thus 
only  could  they  make  evident  to  us  what  the  reason  of  man 

*  There  was  another — the  origin  of  human  souls. 


313-451]  PELAGIAN   CONTROVERSY  477 

can  do,  and  what  it  cannot  do,  in  its  efforts  to  serve  the 
truth. 

Pelagius  and  his  followers  developed  their  scheme  as 
follows : — 

I.  As  regards  the  religions  history  of  the  race — {a)  No 
blame  connected  with  the  sin  of  the  first  man  affects  his 
children.  His  sin  is  imputed  to  himself  alone,  (b)  No 
tendency  to  sin  or  moral  taint  is  propagated  from  Adam  to 
his  descendants,  as  corruption,  (c)  Men,  therefore,  are  now 
born  in  the  same  moral  condition  in  which  Adam  was 
created :  only  temptations  are  stronger,  influences  tending 
to  self-indulgence  that  appeal  to  the  will  have  multiplied 
and  become  prevalent  in  the  history  of  the  race. 

In  connection  with  this  part  of  the  debate,  an  argument 
was  derived  from  the  practice  of  Infant  Baptism,  recognised 
throughout  the  churches  and  not  contested  by  Pelagius. 
"  Baptism  is  'for  forgiveness  of  sins ' — why  then  are  children 
baptized  if  they  have  no  sins  ? "  On  this  Pelagius  main- 
tained— (a)  No  sin,  inherent  or  inherited,  is  remitted  to 
infants  in  baptism,  for  infants  have  none,  (b)  Baptism  does 
not  confer  on  them  "  solus  "  or  blessed  immortality ;  for  that 
is  their  destiny  as  sinless  beings,  apart  from  Christian 
benefit,  (c)  Baptism  qualifies  them  for  a  superior  and 
peculiarly  Christian  blessedness,  distinguished  as  "the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven."  {d)  Also,  it  adds  to  the  good  of 
nature — lonum  naturale — a  special  goodness,  the  honum 
sanctificationis.  (e)  Pelagius  eventually  deferred  to  prevail- 
ing modes  of  speech  by  owning  that  baptism,  even  in  the 
case  of  infants,  is  for  remission  of  sins ;  but  in  this  sense, 
that  it  introduces  them  into  the  order  of  things  in  which 
they  shall  find  remission  of  sins  to  be  a  blessing  made  ready 
for  them  when  they  come  to  need  it. 

II.  Holding  all  this,  Pelagius  laid  it  down  as  his  central 
thesis,  that  as  duty  implies  power,  and  men  continue  to  be 
subjects  of  duty,  free  will,  or  the  power  of  acting  either 
way,  in  particular  the  power  of  doing  right,  exists  after  the 
fall  just  as  it  did  before.  Augustine's  doctrine,  he  main- 
tained, subverted  free  will,  and  so  swept  away  the  capacity 


478       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHUECH        [a.d. 

of  man  for  moral  action.  Pelagius  distinguished — (1)  the 
power  of  choice ;  (2)  the  actual  choice,  e.g.,  of  good ;  (3)  the 
carrying  out  of  that  decision  into  practical  concrete  action. 
The  first  he  said  was  God's  gift ;  the  other  two  depend  on 
the  first,  but  they  are  to  be  ascribed  to  ourselves.  It  is  of 
ourselves  that  we  use  our  power  so.  In  opposition  to 
Augustine  he  held  that  man  can  be  without  sin  in  this 
world.  He  can,  though  Pelagius  did  not  deny  that  it  might 
be  difficult. 

III.  It  had  been  not  unusual  to  contrast  our  present 
state  with  that  of  man  unfallen,  and  to  paint  the  latter  in 
glowing  colours.  Pelagius  saw  that  the  consistency  of  his 
system  required  him  to  resist  this  tendency.  He  maintained 
that  our  present  state  is  not  so  very  different  from  that  in 
which  Adam  was  created.  It  was  to  be  believed  that  disease 
and  death,  natural  incidents  of  corporeal  existence,  were 
incidental  to  that  state  as  they  are  to  ours ;  though  possibly, 
if  man  had  been  faithful  to  his  calling,  immortality  might 
have  been  conferred  on  him  as  a  reward.  Also  as  to  his 
spiritual  condition,  though  Adam  was  originally  sinless 
Pelagius  declined  to  regard  him  as  other  than  equipoised 
between  good  and  evil,  so  that  free  will  might  have  play. 
Pelagius  therefore  taught  practically  no  doctrine  of  original 
righteousness ;  man's  great  endowment  was  free  will — which 
Adam  possessed  and  which  we  possess,  after  the  entrance  of 
sin  as  before  it.  One  point  which  came  into  the  argument 
related  to  concupiscence,  or  the  instinctive  tendency  to 
fleshly  gratifications  of  various  kinds.  Pelagius  maintained 
that  this  is  simply  natural,  and  that  it  existed  in  Paradise 
very  much  as  it  does  now  among  men. 

IV.  Pelagius  acknowledged  grace,  because  the  Scriptures 
speak  of  it;  but  the  question  was  what  he  meant  by  it. 
And  he  seems  to  have  filled  up  that  category  by  setting 
down  to  it  all  benefits  proceeding  from  Divine  goodness, 
which  he  was  still  willing  to  recognise.  In  particular — 
(a)  The  capacity  for  moral  action,  or  the  freedom  of  the  will 
itself,  is  the  primary  instance  of  grace.  This  appears  some- 
times to  be  the  fundamental  thought  of  Pelagius.     (5)  The 


313-451]  PELAGIAN   CONTROVERSY  479 

law,  or,  in  general,  Divine  revelation,  including  the  teaching 
and  example  of  Christ,  (c)  Forgiveness  of  sins  :  this  meets 
a  plain  necessity,  and,  as  it  leads  up  to  renewed  hope  of 
blessedness,  it  tends  to  establish  men  in  goodness. 

As  to  any  such  thing  as  an  operation  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  upon  the  souls  of  men,  Pelagius  did  not  say  much,  but 
he  appears  to  have  admitted  the  possibility  of  it,  chiefly  in 
connection  with  the  understanding,  guiding  to  correct  know- 
ledge. Such  influence  was  not  necessary  in  order  to  choose 
and  do  tnie  good ;  and  it  was  bestowed  usually  as  a  reward 
of  previous  effort  in  the  use  of  natural  power.  These  aids 
were  not  given,  therefore,  as  indispensable  to  every  good  act, 
— ad  singulos  acttcs, — as  Augustine  maintained. 

In  connection  with  his  doctrine  of  human  nature 
Pelagius  urged  the  virtuous  attainments  of  various  heathens, 
who  were  destitute  of  grace  and  yet  manifested  power  to  do 
what  is  truly  good,  or  even  to  live  without  sin.  Heathens 
upright  in  this  life  according  to  their  light  might  have 
entrance  into  eternal  life,  like  unbaptized  infants,  though 
not  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  He  also  maintained  that 
many  persons  had  attained  to  a  life  wholly  free  from  sin. 

In  regard  to  the  positions  of  Augustine : — 

I.  On  the  relation  of  Adam's  sin  to  his  descendants, 
Augustine  taught — (a)  The  sin  of  Adam  or  his  corrupted 
condition  as  a  sinner  is  propagated  to  all  his  natural 
descendants,  (h)  This  condition,  and  the  subjection  to  the 
evil  one  which  accompanies  it,  was  to  Adam  and  his  de- 
scendants the  punishment  of  the  first  sin :  it  is  both  peccatnm 
and  pcena  peccati.  (c)  This  state  of  things  is  accompanied 
by  many  other  penal  evils — disease,  death,  etc.  (d)  Man, 
therefore,  as  he  now  comes  into  the  world  is  unfit  and 
imable  to  do  what  is  truly  good,  (e)  This  original  sin  is  not 
anything  substantial,  or  belongmg  to  the  substance  of 
human  nature :  it  is  not  to  be  conceived  as  a  positive 
element  in  man,  but  rather  as  a  negative  one,  a  want. 

II.  In  his  early  days  Augustine  had  written  largely  in 
defence  of  the  freedom  of  the  will  against  the  Manicheans, 
and  he  still  maintained  it.     But  he  also  taught  that  man,  in 


480       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

abusing  his  freedom,  lost  his  true  or  highest  freedom,  and 
his  state  now  involves  what  may  be  called  a  certainty  of 
sinning.  Sin  rules,  and  grace  only  sets  men  free.  This  is 
a  consequence  of  responsible  human  action,  in  the  person  of 
our  progenitor. 

At  the  same  time,  a  certain  freedom  remains ;  without  a 
certain  freedom  we  could  not  be  the  servants  of  sin.  And 
a  real  freedom  is  exercised  in  the  common  actions  of  life. 
But  freedom  in  the  highest  form,  as  power  to  keep  God's 
Law  in  its  true  sense,  we  have  not,  until  grace  restores  it.^ 

III.  As  regards  the  original  state  of  man  unfallen, 
Augustine  had  thought  out  a  doctrine  remarkable  in  various 
ways,  {a)  Man  unfallen  had  a  reasonable  nature  made  in 
God's  image.  Hence  Augustine  ascribed  to  him  a  glorious 
eminence  of  knowledge  and  wisdom.  (&)  Man  was  free,  so 
that  he  could  sin  indeed,  but  could  also  forbear  to  sin.  This 
free  will  was  a  positive  "  hona  voluntas^*  directed  to  what 
was  good :  and  what  man  had  to  do  was  to  persevere  in  the 
station  in  which  he  was  set.  (c)  In  order  to  man's  main- 
taining his  station  an  adjutorium  gratice  was  required,  and  it 
was  granted.  For  by  reason  of  the  frailty  of  the  creature, 
man,  even  if  purposing  to  persevere,  is  not  able  to  persevere 
permanently  by  mere  creature  power.  If  this  adjutorium 
had  not  been  granted  to  him  he  would  not  have  been 
responsible  for  falling.  But  he  had  it  as  long  as  he  willed : 
it  did  not  fail  the  willing  mind.^ 

{d)  In  the  original  state    the  reasonable  soul  had  full 

^  In  the  course  of  these  discussions  Augustine  elaborated  the  thought, 
often  reproduced  since,  that  the  freedom  of  moral  action,  the  freedom  which 
makes  it  moral,  does  not  necessarily  imply  a  capacity  of  actually  turning  from 
good  to  evil  or  from  evil  to  good :  nay,  that  the  highest  and  truest  freedom 
excludes  for  ever  such  a  contingency.  For  God  is  most  free,  yet  cannot  sin  : — 
and  the  saints  confirmed  in  glory  have  secure  and  consummate  freedom, 
in  which  they  are  for  ever  safe  from  falling. 

2  The  aid  of  grace  by  which  sinners  are  saved  (the  salutaris  gratia  Ghristi) 
is  not  suspended  on  the  sinner's  will :  it  is  to  be  distinguished  as  the  adju- 
torium quo  ;  it  actually  produces  the  effeot.  The  aid  of  the  original  state  was 
only  an  adjutoriuTn  sine  quo  non :  man  lost  this  when  he  fell. — Students 
should  attend  to  the  full  significance  of  the  point  indicated  in  the  second  last 
sentence  of  the  text,  supra. 


313-451]  PELAGIAN   CONTROVERSY  481 

dominion  over  the  body  and  its  desires  :  there  was  no  conflict 
between  appetite  and  reason.  There  was  not  therefore 
concupiscence  in  the  evil  sense  of  hankering  after  that  which 
the  deliberate  judgment  did  not  approve.  Now,  when  man 
has  rebelled  against  God,  the  appetites  rebel  against  the 
reason,  (e)  Man,  able  not  to  sin,  was  placed  under  a 
constitution  in  virtue  of  which,  by  obedience,  he  could  attain 
to  the  reward  of  a  better  state  in  which  he  should  be  con- 
firmed against  all  possibility  of  sinning.  The  posse  non 
peccare  would  have  become  a  non  posse  peccare.  (/)  Although 
the  constitution  of  men's  bodies  did  not  exclude  the  possi- 
bility of  disease  or  death,  yet  so  long  as  he  continued 
obedient,  in  the  right  use  of  his  freedom,  man  was  secure 
acjainst  these  evils  :  this  was  the  immortalitas  minor.  It  was 
a  posse  non  mori  corresponding  to  the  posse  non  peccare  :  and 
if  he  had  attained  to  the  higher  state  of  non  posse  peccare, 
that  would  have  carried  with  it  a  final  non  posse  mori,  or 
immortalitas  major,  {g)  Paradise  was  a  place  corresponding 
to  this  moral  and  corporeal  well-being  in  its  beauty  and  its 
order. 

lY.  As  to  grace :  {a)  Faith,  which  is  the  spring  of  all 
good  works,  is,  in  its  beginning,  middle,  and  end,  the  fruit  of 
prevenient  grace.^  (6)  Grace  operates  both  on  the  under- 
standing and  on  the  will,  enlightening  the  one,  rectifying 
the  other.  The  immediate  influence  of  this  grace  enables 
us  to  choose  aright,  to  desire  and  purpose  the  truly  good 
action.  So  far,  grace  is  gratia  prceveniens.  Grace  prevents 
us  that  we  may  have  a  good  will,  (c)  Grace  also  is 
necessary  to  enable  us  to  carry  out  and  perform  any  good 
action ;  so  it  may  be  called  gratia  cooperans — grace  working 
with  the  good  will  when  we  have  it.  (d)  This  grace  is  not 
given  according  to  our  deservings.  (e)  Whatever  influence 
of  a  less  decisive  kind,  tending  to  good,  may  exist,  this 
grace  certainly  eftects  what  it  is  given  to  effect :  it  overcomes 

*  Augustine  had  held  for  a  time  a  different  doctrine  on  this  subject  (a  form 
of  Semi-Pelagianism) — "quod  credimus  nostrum  est,  sed  quod  bonunj  oper- 
amur  illius  qui  credentibus  in  se  dat  Spirituni  Sanctum,"  but  he  had  renounced 
it  a  number  of  years  before  the  Pelagian  controversy  began. 

31 


482       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

the  obstacles.  (/)  Even  those  who  have  this  grace  are  not 
without  sin  in  this  life.^ 

These  discussions  naturally  led  on  to  the  subject  of 
election :  it  was  only,  however,  in  Augustine's  latter  days 
that  active  discussion  on  this  point  was  forced  on ;  though 
Augustine  had  long  before  reached  his  main  position  in 
regard  to  it.  His  developed  doctrine  was  as  follows : — (a) 
Human  nature  fallen  must  be  considered  as  a  massa  perdi- 
tionis ; — it  has  no  claim  on  Divine  goodness,  and  might  justly 
have  been  left  to  perish.  Any  mercy  shown  must  by  the 
nature  of  the  case  be  absolutely  soA^ereign  and  free.  (&)  God, 
whose  purposes  are  everlasting,  chose,  without  respect  to 
human  merits,  whom  He  would  deliver  from  condemnation 
and  guide  to  blessedness :  and  this  election  is  certain  and 
unchangeable,  (c)  God  uses  the  means  of  grace  to  effect  His 
purpose,  (d)  Perseverance  is  a  peculiar  privilege  of  the 
elect,  and  of  them  only,  (e)  Men  who  are  not  of  the  elect 
may  become  pious,  but  not  receiving  the  gift  of  perseverance 
they  fall  away.  Why,  of  two  men  who  seem  pious,  one 
should  persevere  and  one  should  be  allowed  to  fall,  is  a  mys- 
tery known  to  God  only.  No  reason  can  be  assigned  by  us ; 
but  we  are  sure  that  His  reasons  are  wise,  just,  and  good. 

Hence  Augustine  held  that  the  death  of  Christ,  as 
regards  its  full  and  designed  efficacy,  was  for  the  elect, 
though  some  benefit  by  it  accrues  to  others  in  various 
degrees. 

At  first  it  did  not  appear  how  much  the  controversy 
was  to  involve :  at  first  the  main  point  was  that  a  penitent 
Christian  man  must  surely  live  by  the  strength  of  another, 
not  by  his  own.  As  time  went  on,  however,  the  whole  line 
of  positions  on  either  side  came  under  debate. 

While  Pelagius  on  the  one  side  and  Augustine  on  the 

*  For  a  time  Augustine  had  not  cared  to  dispute  the  Pelagian  assertion 
that  some  had  lived  without  sin,  if  only  Pelagians  had  been  willing  to  own 
that  in  any  such  case  grace  was  the  cause  to  which  this  must  be  ascribed. 
But  on  further  consideration  he  came  to  the  belief  that  according  to  the 
Scriptures  no  mere  man  is  wholly  without  sin  in  this  life.  At  the  same  time 
he  explained  that  in  speaking  of  sin  he  would  be  understood  to  say  nothing  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin. 


313-451]  PELAGIAN    CONTROVERSY  483 

other,  with  their  respective  followers,  contended  for  the 
positions  which  systematic  consistency  seemed  to  require,  it 
is  important  to  note  the  landmarks  laid  down  by  the 
representatives  of  the  Church  as  those  which  Christians 
were  called  upon  to  recognise.  Without  at  present  antici- 
pating later  decisions  we  may  refer  for  this  purpose  to  the 
judgment  of  the  African  Church  which  was  embodied  in 
acts  of  a  council  in  411,  substantially  repeated  in  the 
greater  council  of  418.^     They  lay  down: — 

1.  That  Adam  was  not  subject  to  mortality  by  necessity 
of  nature,  but  death  came  to  him  as  the  penalty  of  sin. 

2.  Newborn  infants  are  baptized  for  remission  of  sins, 
because  the  sin  of  Adam  has  passed  on  all  his  descendants, 
and  this  needs  to  be  purged  in  the  laver  of  regeneration. 

3.  The  grace  of  God  which  justifies  us,  not  only  confers 
forgiveness  of  past  sins,  but  gives  strength  against  sin  in 
time  to  come. 

4.  It  does  so  not  only  by  furnishing  to  us  clearer  light, 
but  it  gives  power  to  accomplish  what  we  see  to  be  right. 

5.  It  is  erroneous  to  say  that  grace  only  renders  it 
easier  to  do  what  could  be  done,  though  with  more  difficulty, 
by  natural  power. 

6.  The  acknowledgments  by  holy  men  in  Scripture  of 
the  consciousness  of  sin  and  need  of  forgiveness  are  to  be 
taken  as  they  sound,  and  are  not  to  be  explained  away. 

After  No.  2  a  canon  is  found  in  some  copies  which 
does  not  appear  in  others,  condemning  the  assertion  that 
there  is  a  place  of  blessedness  for  infants  who  die  unbaptized, 
although  they  are  not  admitted  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

These,  therefore,  are  the  points  on  which  it  was  reckoned 
important  to  make  a  stand. 

Augustine's  system  of  nature  and  grace  made  a  profound 
impression  on  many  minds.  At  the  same  time  difficulties 
soon  arose.  About  the  year  427  his  counsel  was  asked,  in 
consequence  of  trouble  which  had  arisen  in  a  monastery  at 
Adrumetum  as  the  result  of  the  perusal  of  one  of  Augus- 
tine's treatises,  Some,  asserting  free  will,  were  inclined  to 
» Hefele,  iL  102. 


484  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH      [a.d.  313-451 

hold  that  God's  grace  is  given  according  to  our  deserving. 
Others  were  disposed  to  reject  free  will  altogether,  and  also 
to  maintain  that  if  salvation  is  by  grace,  then,  in  the  case  of 
those  who  are  thus  saved,  no  place  remains  for  judgment 
according  to  works.  Some  also  construed  the  doctrine  of 
grace  as  leaving  no  room  for  remonstrance  or  rebuke  being 
addressed  to  those  who  live  in  sin,  or  those  who  are  falling 
back  from  a  good  life ;  for  if  they  had  grace  they  would  not 
be  as  they  are,  and  without  grace  they  cannot  be  otherwise. 
With  a  view  to  all  this  Augustine  wrote  two  tracts,  Be 
Gratia  et  libero  arhitrio,  and  De  correptione  et  Gratia} 
In  the  latter  he  brought  out  very  distinctly  his  views  on 
Predestination  and  the  Perseverance  of  the  saints.  These 
had  long  pertained  to  the  consistency  of  his  system,  as  it  lay 
in  his  own  mind,  but  had  not  as  yet  been  so  plainly  argued 
out.  This  had  the  effect  of  bringing  into  the  field  a  new 
set  of  opponents,  who  repudiated  Pelagianism,  and  yet 
questioned  keenly  the  connected  system  of  Augustine. 
They  were  already  restive  under  his  teaching  on  the  nature 
and  effect  of  original  sin ;  but  the  other  doctrines,  just 
referred  to,  seemed  to  them  to  require  and  justify  a  more 
emphatic  protest.  Those  from  whom  it  proceeded  came  to 
be  known  as  the  Semi-Pelagians. 

1  These  are  the  latest  of  his  works  referred  to  in  the  Betractati(me$  (0pp. 
ypL  i),  which  was  itself  writte^  in  427. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

Semi-Pelagianism 

Prosper  Aquitanus,  Epistola  ad  Aug.  (Aug.  Ep.  225).  Hilarius,  ad  Aug. 
(Aug,  Ep.  226,  0pp.  vol.  ii.).  Joannes  Cassianus,  Collationes  Patrum 
(espec.  xiii.),  0pp.,  Vindob.,  1886-88.  Vincentius  Lerinensis,  Com- 
monitorium,  Migne,  50-53.  Faustus,  De  Gratia  Dei  et  humance  mentis 
liber 0  arbitrio,  2  lil^b.,  and  Professio  Fidei  (in  Migne,  58).  Augustine, 
De  correptione  et  Gratia,  De  Prcedestinatione  sanctorum^  De  dono  Per- 
severantice.  Prosper,  De  Gratia  et  libera  arbitrio  {contra  Gollatorem). 
Acts  of  Synodus  Arausicana,  Mansi,  vol.  viii. ;  Hefele,  ii.,  and 
Aug.  0pp.  vol.  X.  App.  Jac.  Sirmond,  Historia  Prcedestinationis, 
Paris,  1648.  Wiggers,  Versuch  einer  pragm.  Darstellung  d.  Semi- 
pelagianismusy  Hamb.  1833.  C.  E.  Luthardt,  Die  Lehre  vom  freien 
Willen,  Leipz.  1863. 

Augustine,  against  Julian,  had  copiously  appealed  to  earlier 
writers  to  evince  a  Catholic  consent  in  support  of  his  teach- 
ing. Those  quotations,  however,  applied  mainly  to  the 
topics  of  the  fallen  condition  of  man,  and  the  evil  of  con- 
cupiscence. If  Augustine  and  his  followers  admitted  a 
consciousness  that  sin  and  grace  were  handled  in  his  works 
with  an  emphasis  not  reached  by  his  predecessors,  they  held, 
at  least,  that  the  previous  thought  of  the  Church  had 
furnished  the  outlines  into  which  the  deeper  shading  was 
thrown.  Thus  Augustinianism  may  be  said  to  have  offered 
itself  as  a  revelation  of  the  momentous  significance  of  sin 
and  grace,  implied  in  what  the  Church  had  believed  and 
taught,  though  hitherto  hardly  realised.  But  a  number  of 
persons  in  the  churches  of  Southern  Gaul  felt  it  needful  to 
protest  against  this.  In  that  country,  the  seat  of  an  ancient 
Eoman  civilisation,  with  lively  aspirations  after  culture, 
there  existed  also  a  vigorous  Christianity  which  laid  a  strong 

485 


486       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

hand  on  the  educated  upper  class  as  well  as  upon  the  people, 
was  in  sympathy  with  the  church  movements  of  the  time, 
and  felt  able  to  take  its  own  ground  in  theology.  An 
ancient  intercourse  with  the  East  had  been  continued 
or  revived,  which  gave  them  access  to  Eastern  ways  of 
thinking. 

Here  an  anti-Augustinian  movement  arose.  Prosper  in 
his  letter  on  the  subject  to  Augustine  introduces  the  oppo- 
nents as  "  servants  of  Christ  at  Marseilles."  Near  Marseilles 
there  existed  on  the  island  of  Lerins  (Lerinum)  a  convent 
which  had  become  influential.  It  was  able  to  draw  to 
itself  a  number  of  thinking  men,  serious  in  their  Christian 
life,  and  devoted  to  sacred  studies.  This  seems  to  have 
become  the  centre  of  the  thinking  and  teaching  which  at 
a  later  time  was  called  Semi-Pelagian.  Besides,  in  Marseilles 
itself  John  Cassian  had  founded  a  monastery  over  which 
he  presided. 

These  persons  must  have  been  dissatisfied  with  the 
strength  of  Augustine's  teaching  as  to  the  incompetency  of 
fallen  man  to  the  good  which  accompanies  salvation ;  and 
we  find  them  maintaining  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans 
had  not  been  understood  by  church  teachers,  in  relation  to 
the  constant  and  necessary  precedency  of  grace,  as  it  was 
understood  by  Augustine.  But  they  no  doubt  shared  in 
the  sentiments  of  respect  for  Augustine's  character  and 
services,  and  in  particular  they  had  no  wish  to  support  the 
cause  of  Pelagius.  Accordingly  they  seem  to  have  refrained 
from  audible  criticism  until  the  publication  of  the  tracts 
issued  by  Augustine  with  reference  to  the  difficulties  at 
Adrumetum.  Augustine's  tenets  on  Predestination  and 
Perseverance  they  were  prepared  to  oppose  as  novelties, 
inconsistent  with  Catholic  teaching.  "  They  confirm  their 
positions  by  the  allegation  of  antiquity,"  Prosper  reports ; 
also,  "they  allege  the  doctrine  to  be  unedifying  and  danger- 
ous, unfit  to  be  promulgated  even  if  it  were  true  "  (Prosp., 
Ep.  ad  Aug.  3).  In  writing,  however,  they  usually  avoided 
referring  to  Augustine  by  name. 

Prosper  speaks  also  of  the  influence  which  these  men 


313-461]  SEMI-PELAGIANIsM  487 

derived  from  their  character  and  position.  "  They  far  excel 
us  (the  adherents  of  Augustine  at  Marseilles)  in  the  piety  of 
their  lives,  and  some  of  them  have  great  authority,  having 
lately  attained  to  the  episcopate.  Hardly  any,  except  a  few 
courageous  champions  of  the  perfect  grace,  venture  to  appear 
against  them." 

While  these  devout  men  at  Marseilles  were  confident 
that  Augustine's  developed  doctrine  varied  from  the  tradition 
of  the  Church,  they  were,  at  the  same  time,  really  opposed 
to  Pelagius.  They  would  not  let  human  sinfulness  be 
explained  away  as  Pelagius  and  Coelestius  proposed.  They 
affirmed  that  as  the  result  of  Adam's  sin  all  men  sin,  and 
that  no  one  is  saved  by  his  own  works ;  all  need  the  grace  of 
God  in  regeneration  (Prosper,  Ep.  ad  Aug.  3).  They  recog- 
nised therefore  in  Christianity  a  real  remedial  force.  They 
did  not  trouble  themselves,  like  Pelagius,  about  the  virtues 
of  the  heathen,  nor,  it  must  be  added,  about  the  condition  of 
unbaptized  infants.  They  explained  the  case  of  the  latter  by 
assuming  that  God  foresaw  they  would  not  embrace  the  bene- 
fits of  Christ's  salvation  if  they  lived :  at  all  events  both 
classes,  being  outside  of  Christianity,  must  remain  unsaved. 
But  Christian  grace,  which  is  needed  by  all  and  is  offered  to 
all,  can  also  be  welcomed  and  accepted  by  men  by  an  act 
of  their  own  will.  God,  it  is  true,  can  begin  the  work  by 
powerfully  and  directly  influencing  an  individual  who  is 
rebelling  against  Him.  The  instance  of  the  Apostle  Paul 
seems  to  have  chiefly  constrained  them  to  make  this  con- 
cession. But  ordinarily  we  must  first  individually  and 
spontaneously  respond  to  the  general  call,  if  we  are  to 
benefit  by  Christianity. 

Throughout  the  scheme  of  these  Semi-Pelagians  one  is 
struck  by  their  adherence  to  the  impressions  suggested  em- 
pirically by  the  practice  of  the  Church  and  by  the  surface 
movements  of  Christian  minds.  A  man  unbaptized  is  as 
yet  without  grace.  But  such  a  man  may  seriously  wish  to 
be  baptized,  and  may  welcome  the  prospect  of  it.  Such  a 
man,  therefore,  is  not  whole  as  Pelagius  said,  nor  yet  dead 
as  Augustine  seemed  to  say :  he  is  a  man  who  is  sick  with 


488       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.D. 

an  illness  which  he  cannot  himself  cure,  who  can,  however, 
welcome  and  appropriate  the  remedy.  So,  after  baptism, 
grace  is  identified  with  the  helpful  influences  a  man  feels, 
and  it  is  conceived  to  come  and  go  as  the  conscious  moods 
vary.  One  cannot  read  Cassian  without  seeing  that  this 
superficial  impression  determines  the  method  of  his  thinking 
on  the  whole  subject. 

The  two  most  conspicuous  and  vigorous  advocates  of  this 
theology  were  Joannes  Cassianus,  and  at  a  later  period 
Faustus,  bishop  of  Eeii.-^ 

Schemes  which  avoid  Pelagianism  on  the  one  hand,  and 
Augustinianism  on  the  other,  may  arrange  their  compromises 
in  different  ways;  but  Cassian  and  Faustus  do  not  differ 
much.  Faustus  owns  a  doctrine  of  original  sin  more  articu- 
lately and  frankly  than  Cassian ;  but  both  defend  the  com- 
petency of  "  free  will " ;  for  though  free  will  has  been 
weakened  by  the  fall,  it  can  initiate  the  return  to  God,  and 
can  perform  what  is  good.  On  the  other  hand,  while 
Cassian  teaches  a  real  grace  which  enables  the  returning  and 
labouring  will  to  carry  out  its  purpose,  Faustus,  while  using 
expressions  which  seem  to  imply  that  grace  must  both 
precede  and  follow  the  decision  of  the  will,  has  left  it 
doubtful  whether  he  holds  real  internal  grace  at  all.  Under 
the  name  of  "  grace,"  he  seems  to  be  thinking  only  of 
the  moral  influence  of  Christian  truth  and  Christian 
institutions. 

Cassian  died  two  years  after  Augustine,  A.D.  432.  Faustus 
died  not  earlier  than  A.D.  492. 

For  a  time,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Prosper,  Semi- 
Pelagianism  seems  to  have  had  very  considerable  vogue  in 
Gaul.     Under   the   influence  of  Faustus,  in  472  and  475 

^  Besides  these  two  and  Vincentius  of  Lerins,  are  named  Gennadius  of 
Marseilles,  Arnobius  the  younger,  and  the  author  of  the  tract  Prcedestinatiis 
(which  attacks  as  Augustinian  the  doctrine  that  sin  is  due  to  God's  predestina- 
tion). But  it  is  probable  that  the  whole  cluster  of  devout  men  connected  with 
Lerins,  Hilarius,  Eucherius,  Honoratus,  Salonius,  Salvian,  etc.,  sympathised 
with  Cassian.  The  writings  of  some  of  them  at  least  strike  the  reader  by  the 
absence  of  any  echoes  of  Augustine's  style.  That  was  difficult  to  avoid  on  the 
part  of  men  who  read  Augustine  sympathetically. 


313-451]  SEMI-PELAGIANISM  489 

provincial  synods  (at  Aries  and  Lyons)  rejected  the  doctrine 
of  predestination,  though  they  did  not  mention  Augustine's 
name.  The  authority  of  Augustine,  however,  remained 
supreme  among  the  CathoHcs  of  Africa,  and  it  received  the 
support  of  Kome  also,  in  so  far  as  the  writings  of  Augustine 
(and  Prosper)  were  mentioned  with  approbation,  and  by  and 
by  those  of  Cassian  and  Faustus  were  disapproved.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  certain  caution  marked  the  Eoman  procedure. 
Augustine  and  his  writings  are  highly  commended,  and 
opposition  to  them  is  censured,  but  without  specifying  the 
particular  doctrines  in  which  his  teaching  is  to  be  followed ; 
and  sfecific  censure  of  contrary  teaching  is  avoided.  In  the 
beginning  of  the  sixth  century  Caesarius  of  Aries  and 
Avitus  of  Vienne  exerted  a  powerful  mfluence  in  favour  of 
Augustinianism,  and  were  supported  by  Fulgentius  of  Euspe 
in  Africa,  who  represented  a  large  number  of  African  bishops 
banished  from  their  sees  by  the  Arian  Vandals.  At  length, 
in  the  year  529,  a  provincial  synod  held  at  Orange  (Synodus 
Arausicana  II.)  under  Csesarius,  pronounced  against  Semi- 
Pelagianism.  Caesarius  had  been  in  communication  with 
Eome,  and  had  received  papal  approbation  of  a  series  of 
propositions  drawn  from  the  works  of  Augustine,  or  express- 
ing his  mind.  These,  twenty-five  in  number,  were  sanctioned 
by  the  synod.  The  propositions  were  opposed  to  Semi- 
Pelagianism,  mainly  as  they  asserted  strongly  the  previous 
necessity  of  grace  in  order  to  the  very  beginning  of  the 
good  will,  that  all  good  thoughts  and  works  are  God's  gift, 
and  that  even  the  regenerate  and  the  saints  continually  need 
Divine  aid.  The  synod  also  summed  up  its  teaching  in  a 
creed,  the  chief  points  in  which  are : — 

1.  That  through  the  fall  free  will  has  been  so  weakened 
(inclinatum  et  attenuatum)^  that  without  prevenient  grace  no 
one  can  love  God,  believe  in  Him,  or  do  good  for  God's  sake 
as  he  ought. 

2.  Eeceiving  grace  through  baptism,  all  baptized  persons, 
with  the  aid  and  co-operation  of  Christ,  can  and  ought  to 
fulfil  those  things  which  belong  to  the  salvation  of  the  soul, 
if  they  are  willing  faithfully  to  exert  themselves. 


490       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.!). 

3.  In  every  good  work  it  is  not  we  who  begin,  and. 
afterwards  experience  Divine  aid  ;  but  God  Himself,  no  merits 
of  ours  preceding,  inspires  in  us  faith  and  love,  so  that  we 
seek  baptism,  and  after  baptism  are  able  with  His  aid  to  do 
those  things  which  please  Him. 

They  declared  also  their  detestation  of  the  doctrine  that 
some  by  Divine  power  are  predestined  to  sin. 

In  connection  with  these  positions,  they  repudiated  the 
Semi-Pelagian  construction  of  Biblical  instances  which  had 
been  alleged  as  cases  of  faith  and  repentance  beginning  by 
natural  power  previous  to  grace. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  synod  did  not  commit  itself  to 
the  Augustinian  doctrines  of  Predestination  and  Perseverance, 
nor  did  they  say  anything  clearly  about  the  certain  efficacy 
of  grace,  or  whether  it  could  be  frustrated  by  free  will.-^ 

Their  teaching  is  thus  inconsistent  with  Pelagianism  and 
Semi-Pelagianism,  for  example  with  low  Arminianism  (that 
of  Limborch),  but  not  with  evangelical  Arminianism  or  that 
of  Arminius  himself. 

As  far  as  church  authority  is  concerned,  the  Semi- 
Pelagian  controversy  may  be  said  to  have  rested  here. 

Note 

It  may  be  convenient  to  state  in  more  detail  the  system 
of  the  Semi-Pelagians,  as  we  have  already  stated  that  of 
Pelagius  and  that  of  Augustine. 

1.  In  regard  to  the  state  of  man  unfallen,  neither  Cassian 
nor  Faustus  differed  seriously  from  Augustine,  though  they 
did  not  set  that  state  quite  so  high.  But  according  to  Cassian 
it  was  not  subject  to  death,  nor  to  toil  and  weariness,  nor  the 
other  tokens  of  decay  which  mar  our  condition  now.  It  com- 
prehended a  great  fulness  of  knowledge,  especially  insight 
into  God's  nature  and  works.  Also  man  was  free,  able  to 
determine  his  own  course;  and  he  was  in  a  state  of  moral 
perfection,  which  knew  no  rebellion  of  the  flesh  or  strife 
between  flesh  and  spirit.  Thus  he  was  in  the  image  of  God. 
Faustus  did  not  differ  as  to  this.      He  distinguished  (with 

^  The  same  remark  applies  to  the  Augustinian  theory  of  the  propagation 
and  imputation  of  Adam's  sin. 


313-  451]  SEMI-PELAGTANISM  491 

various  previous  teachers)  the  Imago  Dei  hom.  the  Similitiido, 
The  image,  certainly  in  some  of  its  features,  is  essential  to 
man,  the  similitudo  only  the  good  possess.  Faustus  agreed 
verbally  with  Augustine  in  holding  that,  besides  freedom  of 
the  will,  man  unfallen  needed  grace  in  order  to  be  sufficiently 
prepared  to  persevere  in  goodness.  But  see  below  as  to  what 
Faustus  meant  by  grace. 

2.  The  fall.  Both  Cassian  and  Faustus  agreed  with 
Augustine  that  Adam's  sin  was  essentially  a  sin  of  pride. 
And  we,  his  children,  are  concerned  in  it  in  so  far  as  it  has 
entailed  evil  consequences  upon  us  all.  Faustus  speaks  of  it 
as  peccatum  originate,  originale  delictum,  generate  peccatum. 
As  to  consequences : — 

{a)  This  sin  has  brought  to  us  death,  toil,  the  various 
sorrows  of  life.  Faustus  speaks  of  these  as  not  merely  the 
consequence  but  the  punishment  of  the  fall. 

(&)  Cassian  taught  that  mankind  has  suffered  intellectually. 
The  knowledge  of  God  and  of  the  Divine  law  was  weakened, 
so  that  it  became  necessary  for  man's  guidance  that  he 
should  have  a  written  law.  Faustus  does  not  go  much 
into  this. 

(c)  Most  important  are  the  moral  consequences.  Cassian 
traces  to  the  fall  a  sickness  or  weakness  of  our  moral  powers, 
and  a  want  of  harmony,  a  contest,  between  the  flesh  (the 
appetites  which  seek  created  good)  and  the  spirit.  The  will 
of  man  is  now  prone  to  be  betrayed  into  vice  rather  than  to 
adhere  to  virtue.  This  state  of  things  is  not  in  itself  sin ; 
it  is  only  an  inherited  evil,  or  ill  condition  which  involves 
danger.  Man  therefore  is  seriously  weakened,  but  not  so  that 
he  should  be  described  as  capable  only  of  evil.  Yet  he  cannot 
be  without  sin  in  this  world. 

Faustus  seems  to  go  further.  He  acknowledges  original 
sin  as  a  contagion  that  is  positively  evil,  descending  to  us 
from  Adam.  Therefore  also  the  remission  of  the  guilt  of 
it  is  an  element  in  the  blessing  held  forth  in  baptism.  He 
agrees  with  Cassian  in  asserting  that,  notwithstanding  this, 
a  knowledge  of  God  and  a  power  to  do  what  is  truly  good 
remained. 

They  agreed,  therefore,  in  their  teaching  as  to  the  power 
and  freedom  of  the  will.  Fallen  man  has  a  power  to  will 
what  is  good,  though  not  to  carry  it  through  without  grace. 
He  can  deal  with  the  thoughts  that  offer  themselves,  so  as  to 
entertain  or  reject  them.  He  can  make  use  of  the  oppor- 
tunities which  God  offers.      God  must  so  far  begin  as  to 


492       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       U.D. 

afford  us  an  opportunity;  free  will  has  power  to  accept  or 
reject  it.     So  also  it  can  withstand  the  evil  one. 

3.  As  to  grace.  Cassia n  holds  that  the  external  call 
affords  us  the  opportunity  of  seeking  salvation.  Receiving 
that  call,  we  can,  and  ordinarily  we  must,  in  the  use  of  our  own 
strength  and  freedom  embrace  it,  will  what  is  good,  desire 
grace  and  labour  for  it.  Then  there  comes  an  inward  grace, 
without  which  we  could  not  finally  succeed.  This  grace 
influences  both  understanding  and  will,  and  enables  us  to  carry 
out  our  purpose.  Cassian  spoke  of  it  under  four  heads 
— Protection,  Inspiration,  Castigation,  Exhortation.  Though 
we  do  not,  strictly  speaking,  deserve  this  grace,  it  never  fails 
the  consenting  will. 

Cassian  was  prepared  also  to  admit  the  Augustinian 
doctrine,  that  with  a  view  to  being  good  we  need  this  grace 
singulis  momentis  (=  ad  singulos  actus).  Only,  he  said,  when 
God  for  any  wise  reason  ...  for  our  discipline,  withdraws 
grace,  the  will  can  hold  on  for  some  time,  waiting  and  praying 
for  its  return. 

This  is  the  ordinary  rule.  But  Cassian  says  that  it  is 
still  open  to  God,  if  He  pleases,  to  bestow  influences  of  grace 
(unexpectedly  as  it  were)  on  men  who  are  not  yet  desiring 
grace  nor  purposing  what  is  good.  The  conversion  of  the 
Apostle  Paul  is  his  example. 

Faustus  sometimes  seems  to  express  a  higher  doctrine 
than  Cassian ;  for  he  says  that  grace  must  loth  precede  and 
follow  the  action  of  the  will.  But  then  this  grace  appears  to 
mean  only  the  outwardly  given  truth  and  ordinance — what 
Cassian  speaks  of  as  the  divinely-furnished  opportunity.  It 
has  been  doubted  whether  Faustus  contemplates  grace  at  all 
as  a  real  internal  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit — as  anything 
more  than  the  moral  influence  of  Christian  teaching  and 
institutions.  If  that  be  so,  Faustus  on  this  point  stands 
nearer  to  Pelagius  than  Cassian  does. 

4.  Predestination.  In  so  far  as  this  word  designates  the 
Divine  purpose  regarding  the  ultimate  destiny  of  individuals, 
Cassian  and  Faustus  alike  held  it  to  be  conditioned  on  the 
moral  decisions  of  men  themselves.  God's  purpose  is  to  save 
all,  if  all  will  consent  to  be  saved.  The  views  of  Cassian  on 
these  points  are  to  be  made  out  chiefly  by  inferences  and 
occasional  allusions :  in  Faustus  they  are  prominently  incul- 
cated and  presented  with  the  utmost  decision. 

Cassian  does  not  meddle  with  the  case  of  unbaptized 
Christian  children,  which  was  so  prominent  in  Augustine's 


313-451]  SteMT-PELAGlANISM  4&3 

argument.  As  to  the  heathen  and  their  virtues,  he  does  not 
take  a  favourahle  view  of  them.  What  the  school  is  concerned 
about  is  merely  freedom  of  will  to  choose  and  to  attain 
salvation  under  the  light  of  Christian  revelation  and  with  the 
helps  it  offers.  Beyond  that,  they  do  not  seem  interested  in 
the  question  as  to  what  man  unaided  can  attain  either  of 
virtue  or  reward.  The  image  in  which  Faustus  rests  as  the 
key  to  the  whole  case  is  that  of  the  sick  man  who  cannot  rise, 
but  who  on  invitation  stretches  out  his  hand  to  lay  hold  of 
the  helping  hand  which  can  raise  him  up. 

Against  the  Semi-Pelagians  the  most  pronounced  contro- 
versialists were  Prosper  in  the  fifth  century  and  Fulgentius 
in  the  sixth.  Both  may  be  said  to  have  maintained  the  full 
doctrine  of  Augustine,  though  neither  perhaps  reveals  a  full 
mastery  of  Augustinian  thought.  The  great  point  urged  by 
them  against  the  Semi-Pelagians  was  that  all  true  good  comes 
from  grace,  and  therefore  grace  causes  the  very  beginning  of 
the  good  will.  On  tl^is  point  the  general  sentiment  of  the 
Church  could  be  more  securely  counted  upon  in  support  of 
their  argument.  At  the  same  time  the  whole  range  of 
Augustinian  positions,  including  those  relating  to  Predestina- 
tion and  Perseverance,  were  maintained  by  Prosper  and 
Fulgentius.^ 

*  The  works  of  Fulgentius,  De  Incamatione  et  Gratia  and  de  Veritate 
Prcedestinaficmis  et  GraticBf  in  Migne,  65.  The  work  of  Caesarius,  De  gratia, 
etc,  is  lost* 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

Ecclesiastical  Personages 

[who  survived  a.d.  400] 

Joannes,  commonly  called  Chrysostomus,  was  born  at  Antioch 
perhaps  in  A.D.  347.  His  father  died  early,  and  he  grew 
up  under  the  care  of  his  mother,  Anthusa,  one  of  the  notable 
Christian  women  of  Church  History.  He  was  educated  for 
the  profession  of  an  advocate,  which  he  practised  for  a  short 
time,  and  Libanius  was  one  of  the  teachers  under  whom  he 
studied.  An  early  friend,  of  the  name  of  Basil,  to  whom  he 
was  enthusiastically  attached,  was  led  to  devote  himself  to 
monastic  Ufe,  and  this  induced  Chrysostom  to  adopt  the 
same  resolution.  Under  these  influences  he  applied  for 
baptism,  and  was  ordained  to  the  office  of  reader  (a.d,  370). 
His  mother's  distress  at  the  prospect  of  losing  him  led  him 
to  abandon  for  a  time  his  purpose  of  leaving  his  home. 
But  otherwise  he  practised  the  ascetic  life.  He  now  came 
under  the  instruction  of  Diodorus  of  Tarsus  {ante,  p.  375). 
Theodorus,  afterwards  of  Mopsuestia,  was  a  fellow-student. 
About  A.D.  374  he  went  into  seclusion  among  the  mountains 
near  Antioch,  and  continued  to  live  a  life  of  great  privation 
until  380.  His  health  was  seriously  affected;  and  he 
returned  to  Antioch,  when  he  was  ordained  deacon  in  A.D. 
381,  and  presbyter  in  386.  He  immediately  signalised 
himself  as  a  preacher,  and  continued  to  sustain  his  great 
reputation  in  that  respect  during  ten  years.  In  the  spring 
of  387  occurred  the  riot  during  which  the  statues  of  the 
Emperor  Theodosius  were  destroyed.  The  outbreak  was 
immediately  followed  by  panic  as  to  the  consequences,  and 
the  bishop  Flavian  departed  to  the  Court  to  implore  for  the 


A.D.  313-451]         ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  495 

people  the  emperor's  forgiveness.  In  the  interval  of  anxiety 
(three  weeks)  the  celebrated  Homilies  on  the  Statues  were 
delivered. 

In  398  Chrysostom  was  consecrated  to  the  see  of 
Constantinople.  There  had  been  previously  a  large  amount 
of  splendour  in  the  surroundings  of  the  bishop,  and  much 
laxity  among  the  clergy.  Chrysostom  revolutionised  the 
appointments  of  the  residence,  and  lived  with  great  privacy 
and  simplicity;  a  course  which  perhaps  deprived  him  of 
friendships  that  it  might  have  been  useful  to  cultivate.  He 
applied  himself  also  to  reform  the  manners  of  his  clergy,  and 
in  doing  so  he  raised  up  bitter  enemies.  Along  with  his  great 
qualities  a  certain  irritability  attached  to  Chrysostom,  and  a 
disposition  to  break  out  with  angry  utterance  on  things  and 
persons  he  disapproved,  not  only  in  private  but  in  the 
pulpit.  On  the  other  hand,  his  devotedness  to  the  duties  of 
his  office  was  conspicuous. 

Eutropius  was  the  man  at  the  head  of  affairs  who  had 
brought  Chrysostom  to  Constantinople:  he  turned  against 
him  when  he  found  the  bishop  resolute  to  take  his  own 
course.  Eutropius  fell,  however.  Gainas,  an  Arian  Goth, 
who  succeeded  him,  quarrelled  with  Chrysostom  over  the 
question  whether  churches  might  not  be  ceded  to  the 
Arians.  He  also  fell  from  power.  But  Chrysostom's 
enemies  were  multiplying.  And  Chrysostom  was  sometimes 
rash  and  vehement  in  his  dealings  with  them.  Eudoxia  the 
empress,  after  some  efforts  to  commend  herself  to  Chry- 
sostom, had  joined  their  ranks :  and  the  bishop  was  certainly 
less  than  prudent  in  the  attitude  he  took  with  respect  to 
her. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  dispute  con- 
cerning Origen,  and  the  manner  in  which  Chrysostom  was 
drawn  into  some  connection  with  it  (pp.  368,  369).  When 
Theophilus  of  Alexandria  appeared  to  lead  a  party  against 
Chrysostom,  his  enemies  felt  that  their  opportunity  was 
come.  A  string  of  charges,  preposterous  and  frivolous,  was 
got  up  against  him,  and  a  "  council "  of  thirty-six  bishops, 
chiefly  Egyptian,  deposed  him.     The    emperor   condemned 


496       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

him  to  banishment;  but  an  earthquake  during  the  night 
succeeding  his  departure  impressed  the  general  mind,  so 
that  he  was  recalled,  and  another  council  reversed  the 
ecclesiastical  decision.  But  the  enmity  of  the  empress 
revived,  and  Chrysostom  was  ousted  and  exiled  in  404. 
Innocent  of  Eome  denounced  these  proceedings,  but  was  not 
listened  to. 

Chrysostom's  first  place  of  exile  was  Cucusus,  in  one  of 
the  ranges  of  Mount  Taurus.  It  had  an  inclement  climate, 
and  was  exposed  to  the  raids  of  Isaurian  marauders.  He 
suffered  severely  on  the  journey  from  Constantinople,  and 
partly  also  during  his  stay  in  Cucusus,  from  the  effect  of 
hardships  on  an  elderly  man  whose  health  was  broken ;  but 
his  residence  there  was  cheered  by  much  friendship,  as  well 
as  by  his  correspondence  with  devoted  adherents  in  Con- 
stantinople. This  did  not  please  his  enemies  at  Court ;  and 
after  three  years  orders  were  issued  to  remove  him  to  Pityus, 
on  the  north-eastern  shores  of  the  Euxine.  This  immense 
journey  over  a  most  rugged  and  inclement  country  was  well 
fitted  to  kill  Chrysostom,  and  everything  was  planned  to 
increase  the  hardships.  Three  months  of  journeying  found 
him  and  his  guards  near  Comana.  There  the  end  came. 
One  morning  after  starting  they  were  obliged  to  carry  him 
back  and  lay  him  in  a  chapel  in  which  he  had  slept  the 
night  before.     There  he  died,  A.D.  407. 

Chrysostom's  correspondence  during  his  banishment 
(especially  with  Olympias,  a  lady  at  Constantinople)  throws 
an  interesting  light  on  his  character,  from  the  Christian 
humility  and  submission  which  pervade  it.  His  last  words 
were  %apfc9  to5  ©cm  irdvTrov  evexa.  His  most  noted  works 
are  Homilies,  Commentaries,  and  Letters ;  also  his  treatise, 
De  Sacerdotio,  and  various  tracts  on  the  monastic  life.  Best 
edition  is  the  Benedictine  by  Montfaucon,  l3  vols.,  Paris, 
1718.  Venetian  reprints,  1734,  1755,  and,  at  Paris,  1734, 
and  by  Migne,  1863.  Biographies  by  Neander,  2  vols., 
Berlin,  1844;  Stephens,  Lond.  1872  ;  also  Bohringer,  vol.  ix. 

Cyril    of    Alexandria    has    already   been    sufficiently 


313-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  497 

characterised  (Chap.  XXIIL).     It  is  only  necessary  to  add 
a  few  details. 

After  some  years  spent  among  the  monks  of  Nitria, 
Cyril  was  ordained  presbyter  at  Alexandria  by  his  uncle,  the 
bishop  Theophilus.  The  latter  died  a.d.  412,  and  after  a 
bitter  contest  Cyril  became  his  successor.  The  early  years 
of  his  episcopate  were  marked  by  extraordinary  manifesta- 
tions of  his  vehement  and  determined  character  in  his 
conflict  with  Orestes,  the  representative  of  the  emperor,  and 
in  the  assault  he  made  at  the  head  of  the  Christian  population 
upon  the  Jews.  Shortly  after,  the  lamentable  event  of  the 
murder  of  Hypatia  by  a  Christian  mob  and  in  a  Christian 
church  took  place — an  event  which  shed  a  sad  light  on  the 
character  of  the  passions  which  Cyril  had  awakened,  or  had 
failed  to  repress.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  Cyril  possessed 
great  qualities,  and  won  for  himself  as  a  theological  thinker 
and  debater,  and  also  as  an  ecclesiastical  leader,  genuine 
confidence  and  admiration.  The  Nestorian  controversy 
occupied  the  latter  part  of  his  episcopate  (see  Chap.  XXIIL). 
His  management  of  the  council  of  Ephesus  was  successful 
but  not  creditable ;  on  the  other  hand,  his  writings  in  this 
cause  have  maintained  their  place  as  important  theological 
documents.  A  few  incidents  of  his  latter  days  are  hardly 
worth  recording  here.  He  died  A.D.  444.  Besides  his 
Anti-Nestorian  writings  and  his  Commentaries,  his  answer 
to  the  attack  of  the  Emperor  Julian  upon  Christianity 
obtained  celebrity.  The  Paris  edition  of  his  works,  by 
Aubert,  1658,  is  considered  the  best.  There  is  a  life  by 
Kopallik,  Mainz,  1881. 

Theodoretus  was  a  native  of  Antioch,  born  perhaps  in 
390,  of  a  pious  mother.  He  was  educated  at  the  convent  of 
St.  Euprepius,  and  was  a  friend,  probably  a  fellow-student,  of 
Nestorius.  He  became  bishop  of  Cyrus  (Cyros  or  Cyrrhos), 
in  Syria,  after  420.  The  main  facts  as  to  his  relation  to  the 
debates  of  his  time  have  been  referred  to  in  Chap.  XXIIL 
Here  it  is  only  necessary  to  add  that  his  personal  character 
was  attractive  for  kindliness,  benevolence,  and  diligence  id 
32 


498       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

the  work  of  a  rather  obscure  and  poor  bishopric.  He  was  a 
man  of  very  considerable  ability,  was  well-read,  and  knew  his 
ground  as  a  defender  of  Antiochian  theology,  and  he  leaves 
on  the  mind  the  impression  of  much  sincerity  and  worth. 
Besides  polemical  writings  in  the  Nestorian  Controversy  and 
his  History  in  five  books  (covering  A.D.  325-429),  he  wrote 
Commentaries  on  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  (that 
on  the  Pauline  Epistles  is  perhaps  the  most  successful),  a  work 
against  heretics,  one  against  the  paganism  of  the  day  {De 
curandis  Grcecorum  affedibus),  and  a  Historia  religiosa,  which 
commemorates  the  virtues  and  the  marvels  of  contemporary 
and  recent  ascetics.  His  works  by  Schulze  (including  the 
most  important  dissertations  of  Garnier),  Halle,  5  vols. 
1768-74,  are  reprinted  by  Migne,  Gr.  80-84.  Specht, 
Theodor  v.  Mopseustia  u.  Theodoret,  MUnchen,  1871. 

Isidore  of  Pelusium(in  Egypt),  who  died  about  a.d.  435, 
is  remarkable  partly  for  the  extraordinary  number  of  his  Epp. 
which  have  been  preserved  (about  two  thousand — edited 
by  Schott),  but  also  for  the  Christian  purity  of  his  character. 
He  wrote  five  books  on  interpretation  of  Scripture,  Migne, 
Gr.  series,  78.  Article  by  Niemeyer  in  Herzog  u.  Plitt, 
Beal-Uncycl.  vii 

Jerome^  (Eusebius  Hieronymus)  was,  after  Eusebius, 
the  literary  authority  and  celebrity  of  the  early  Church, 
especially  of  the  Latin  branch  of  it.  He  was  born  at 
Stridon,  near  Aquileia,  perhaps  about  A.D.  346.  His  educa- 
tion was  liberally  cared  for,  and  was  completed  at  Eome. 
He  studied  under  Donatus,  and  became  conversant  with  the 
best  Latin  literature  and  a  considerable  range  of  Greek 
authors  also.  After  a  period  of  careless  life  a  more  serious 
temper  gained  ascendency,  and  he  was  baptized  before  366. 

^  Earliest  edition  of  collected  works  by  Erasmus,  1516  fol.  That  by 
Vallarsi,  Verona,  1734-42,  is  reckoned  the  best,  reprinted  by  Migne,  23-33. 
Amedee  Thierry,  Saint  Jerome,  etc.,  Paris,  1867.  0.  Zockler,  Hicrouymus^ 
U.S.W.,  Gotha,  1865.  All  Dictionaries  of  Biography,  Ecclesiastical  Encyclo- 
paedias, works  on  Patristic  and  Church  Histories  are  full  on  Jerome. 


313-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  499 

With  his  friend  Bonosus  he  departed  into  Gaul,  carrying 
with  him  a  considerable  number  of  books.  On  the  way  (at 
Aquileia  ?)  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Eufinus,  and  prob- 
ably at  this  time  the  bent  towards  the  study  of  ecclesiastical 
literature  declared  itself.  He  spent  some  years  in  Gaul, 
chiefly  at  Treves,  but  returned  to  Italy  in  370.  Here  for 
some  time  he  was  associated  with  an  interesting  company  of 
studious  and  devout  men  at  Aquileia,  much  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Evagrius,  afterwards  bishop  of  Antioch.  In  373 
this  company  was  scattered,  and  Jerome  with  Evagrius  and 
some  others  departed  for  the  East,  journeying  through  Asia 
Minor  to  Antioch.  Here  (a.d.  374)  he  fell  into  a  serious 
illness,  during  which  he  felt  himself  placed  before  the 
judgment-seat  and  condemned,  as  being  a  Ciceronian  rather 
than  a  Christian.  Under  the  impression  of  this  dream  or 
vision  he  vowed  that  he  would  study  classical  literature  no 
more.  The  vow  was  not  literally  carried  out ;  but  he  seems 
to  have  regarded  this  as  a  decisive  crisis  in  his  religious  life ; 
and  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  he  went  into  the  desert 
of  Chalcis  as  a  recluse.  The  life  he  lived  here  for  five  years 
is  vividly  described  by  himself  {Ep.  22)  as  squalid,  mournful, 
and  agitated  by  mental  conflicts ;  but  it  is  certain  that  he 
was  also  busily  engaged  in  study  (including  the  acquisition 
of  Hebrew).  Towards  the  end  of  the  period  he  found  him- 
self involved  In  theological  disputes  with  other  hermits,  and 
he  returned  to  Antioch  in  A.D.  379,  spent  380  and  381  in 
Constantinople,  and  from  382  to  385  was  at  Kome.  There, 
under  the  auspices  of  Pope  Damasus,  he  began  his  important 
labours  on  the  Latin  texts  of  the  Scriptures — revising  the 
translation  of  the  Psalms  and  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
commencing  his  systematic  study  of  the  Old  Testament. 
To  this  period  belong  also  various  exegetical  tracts,  original 
and  translated. 

Jerome  also  became  known  at  this  time  as  an  influential 
and  vehement  advocate  of  asceticism.  He  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Paula,  and  became  the  centre  of  a  circle  of  devout 
and  studious  ladies.  In  385  strong  feelings  of  antagonism 
to  Jerome  became  manifest  in  Kome,  especially  after  Blesilla, 


500       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.D. 

the  widowed  daughter  of  Paula,  died,  as  it  was  said,  from  the 
effect  of  extravagant  privations.  Damasus  too,  who  had 
been  his  patron,  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Siricius,  who 
showed  Jerome  no  favour.  In  all  such  passages  of  Jerome's 
history  the  extraordinary  violence  and  scurrility  of  his 
language,  when  he  was  opposed,  occasioned  a  great  part  of 
the  difficulties  which  he  met  with.  He  left  for  Palestine, 
accompanied  by  Paula  and  her  daughter  Eustochium.  They 
arrived  at  Jerusalem  in  386;  and  after  a  short  visit  to 
Egypt  they  settled  at  Bethlehem,  where  monastic  insti- 
tutions, hospices,  and  a  church  were  built  by  Paula.  Here 
Jerome  continued  for  the  remaining  thirty-four  years  of  his 
life. 

He  was  occupied  incessantly.  The  text  of  the  LXX, 
Hebrew  studies,  the  revised  Latin  translation  (Vulgate), 
numerous  commentaries,  ascetic  writings,  guidance  of  his 
monastic  associates,  and  an  enormous  correspondence  filled 
up  his  time.  There  were  also  his  controversies  with  Jovinian 
{ante,  p.  298),  with  Eufinus  {ante,  p.  367)  connected  with 
the  greater  question  of  Origen,  with  Vigilantius.  He  ac- 
quired the  friendship  of  Augustine,  and  took  part  in  the 
Pelagian  controversy.  During  this  time  invasions  and 
troubles  in  the  empire  caused  repeated  and  serious  dis- 
turbance to  the  community  at  Bethlehem.  Paula  died  in 
403,  Eustochium  in  418;  but  a  younger  generation  of  his 
Eoman  friends  supplied  helpers  to  take  their  place  (the 
younger  Paula  and  a  younger  Melania).  His  literary  activity 
continued  almost  to  the  end.  He  died  in  A.D.  420  on  the 
20  th  September.  His  Christianity,  though  devout,  leant  to 
the  shallow,  the  legal,  and  the  external  type. 

Jerome  was  an  effective  translator,  a  diligent  but  not  an 
original  or  sagacious  commentator.  He  had  a  most  extensive 
acquaintance  with  books,  and  so  with  history  ;  but  his  critical 
faculty  was  feeble,  and  modern  scholars  often  complain 
bitterly  of  his  untrustworthiness  in  detail,  and  his  willing- 
ness to  be  thought  to  know  when  he  is  ignorant.  Yet  he 
possessed  the  genuine  enthusiasms  of  a  scholar,  sustained  by 
a  most  lively  intelligence;  and  a  certain  real  insight  intp 


313-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  501 

the  conditions  on  which  the  understanding  of  written  docu- 
ments depends,  cand  a  creditable  fidelity  in  following  out  his 
own  instincts  in  that  respect,  must  be  ascribed  to  Jerome, 
who  is  thus  distinguished  from  all  his  contemporaries,  unless 
we  except  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia.  Jerome's  sense  of  the 
importance  of  Hebrew  had  no  support  from  the  prejudices 
of  his  age.  His  admirable  Latin  style,  his  immense  reading, 
his  diligence,  his  real  interest  in  ecclesiastical  story,  and  the 
extensive  service  he  rendered  to  literature  and  learning  will 
always  attract  scholars,  however  his  other  qualities  may 
repel  them.  He  has  no  claim  to  theological  power.  His 
proneness  to  reckless  violence  in  speech  is  an  odious  feature ; 
and  his  self-consciousness  was  pronounced.  In  spite  of  this 
he  had  warm  friends  who  never  failed  him.  His  letters 
and  the  prefaces  to  his  commentaries  are  full  of  interesting 
matter.  Erasmus  delighted  in  him,  and  Luther  strongly 
disliked  him. 

EuFiNUS  (Tyrannius  Eufinus),  b.  345,  d.  410.  In  addi- 
tion to  what  has  been  already  said  {ante,  p.  366),  it  is  only 
necessary  to  add  that  he  was  a  native  of  Northern  Italy,  was 
baptized  A.D.  371,  and  after  some  years  spent  in  Egypt  came 
to  Palestine,  where  he  was  ordained  about  390.  After  397 
he  returned  to  Aquileia,  but  finally  died  in  Sicily.  His  im- 
portance in  ecclesiastical  literature  is  chiefly  due  to  his 
translations  of  Greek  writers  (from  Origen  downwards)  into 
Latin,  which  served  the  useful  purpose  of  familiarising 
Western  men  with  the  literature  of  the  Eastern  Church. 
He  continued  the  history  of  Eusebius,  and  has  left  also  an 
exposition  of  the  creed,  lives  of  ascetics,  and  several  contro- 
versial works.  His  Christian  friendship  with  the  Eoman 
widow  lady,  Melania,  both  in  Palestine  and  in  Italy,  was  a 
characteristic  feature  in  his  life,  and  was  analogous  to  that 
between  Jerome  and  Paula. 

Synesius,  a  native  of  Gyrene,  and  afterwards  bishop  of 
Ptolemais  in  the  Libyan  Pentapolis,  was  born  sometime  near 
365-370.     Possessed  of  an  ample  fortune,  he  pursued  hia 


502       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

studies  at  Alexandria  (where  he  came  under  the  influence 
of  Hypatia)  and  Athens.  He  was  a  man  of  real  ability, 
courageous  and  sympathetic,  cheerful,  active  and  romantic, 
happy  in  his  married  life,  and  devotedly  attached  to  his 
children.  He  loved  country  occupations  and  field  sports ; 
and  as  a  country  gentleman  of  good  estate  he  had  every 
prospect  of  being  able  to  gratify  his  desires.  The  main 
difficulty  arose  from  his  best  qualities — patriotism,  and 
sympathy  with  his  poorer  neighbours.  Three  years  he  had 
to  waste  at  Constantinople  pleading  the  cause  of  his  native 
city.  After  his  return  to  the  Pentapolis  he  was  kept  in  hot 
water,  on  the  one  hand,  in  opposing  the  stupidities  and 
cruelties  of  local  governors,  on  the  other  hand  in  striving  to 
protect  his  neighbours  from  the  devastating  raids  of  desert 
tribes.  A  small  organised  force,  well  handled,  would  have 
sufficed  to  keep  down  these  marauders ;  but  the  central 
government  was  too  inefficient  to  provide  for  the  defence  of 
the  province,  and  too  jealous  of  local  initiative  to  allow  the 
provincials  to  defend  themselves. 

Synesius  had  left  the  schools  a  Neoplatonist,  glowing 
with  the  devout  enthusiasms  of  a  system  which  could  unfold 
itself,  as  the  votary  chose,  on  the  religious  or  on  the  specu- 
lative side.  Gradually,  as  the  development  of  Christian 
influences  and  institutions  went  on  around  him,  he  seems  to 
have  drawn  nearer  to  Christianity ;  and  he  had  learned  to 
respect  and  trust  Theophilus,  the  bishop  of  Alexandria. 
But  he  still  was  undecided  on  some  of  the  articles  of 
Christian  belief,  when  the  bishopric  of  Pentapolis  became 
vacant,  and  the  people  in  the  most  urgent  way  sought 
Synesius  for  their  shepherd, — a  man  whose  character  stood 
so  high,  and  whose  position  and  influence,  reinforcing  epis- 
copal prestige,  might  do  so  much  for  them.  Synesius  was 
very  unwilling: — besides  his  theological  difficulties,  he  re- 
fused to  separate  from  his  wife ;  he  foresaw  the  sacrifice  of 
many  innocent  tastes  and  recreations,  and  the  incessant 
pressure  of  many  cares.  Finally  he  left  it  to  Theophilus  to 
decide,  who  at  once  conjured  him  to  undertake  the  task. 
Synesius  accordingly  became  bishop,  a.d.  409,  and  did  his 


313-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  503 

best  for  his  people.  He  had  already  rather  frankly  declared 
for  the  method  of  an  exoteric  doctrine  for  the  people  and 
esoteric  for  himself ;  but  he  made  this  known  to  Theophilus 
and  left  liim  to  judge.  He  was  baptized  and  consecrated  at 
Alexandria.  Probably  he  did  not  survive  the  year  414. 
He  left  behind  him  a  tract  on  dreams  (written  before  his 
baptism),  poems  and  hymns,  a  couple  of  homilies,  speeches 
and  letters.  Synesius  is  a  singularly  interesting,  because  a 
singularly  frank,  sincere,  and  vivacious  embodiment  of  the 
diverging  influences  of  the  time.  It  should  be  mentioned 
that  his  last  letter  is  to  Hypatia,  full  of  afiectionate  and 
confiding  regard ;  and  his  last  poem  is  a  prayer  to  Christ. 
(Clausen,  i)e  Synesio  Fhilosoph.,  Hsiin.  1831.  Aug.  Neander, 
DenkwUrdigJceiten,  vol.  i.  2nd  ed.  KoUe,  d.  Bischoff  Synesius, 
Berlin,  1850.  Dryon,  Etudes  sur  la  vie,  etc.,  de  Synesius, 
Paris,  1859.  R.  Volkmann,  Synesius  von  Cyrene,  Berlin, 
1869.     A  full  article  in  Smith's  Biographical  Dictionary.) 

Cassianus,  Johannes,  has  been  referred  to  in  Chaps. 
XVIII.  and  XXX.  He  belonged  originally  to  the  West, 
perhaps  to  Gaul,  but  early  in  his  life  resorted  to  Bethlehem, 
and  participated  in  the  monastic  life  there.  Afterwards  with 
a  friend,  Germanus,  he  spent  ten  years  in  Egypt,  associating 
with  monks  and  ascetics  in  the  places  he  visited.  Return- 
ing to  Constantinople  he  was  ordained  deacon  by  Chrysostom, 
and  afterwards  passed  to  Rome.  After  410  we  find  him  in 
Southern  Gaul.  He  founded  a  monastery  at  Marseilles,  and 
also  a  convent  of  nuns ;  and  there  he  spent  the  rest  of  his 
life.  His  two  works,  De  Cosnohiorum  Institutis  and  Colla- 
times  Patrum,  have  been  described  (pp.  297,298).  He  wrote 
De  Incarnatione  Domini  contra  Nestorium  in  seven  books, 
attacking  also  Pelagianism  as  akin  to  Nestorianism.  He 
died  A.D.  432.  His  works  deserve  the  attention  of  students 
who  wish  to  be  acquainted  with  the  religious  atmosphere  of 
that  time.  Latest  edition,  2  vols.,  M.  Petschenig,  1886- 
1888,  in  the  Vienna  series. 

SuLPicius  Severus,  a  native  of  Aquitaine,  belonged  to  a 


504       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

family  of  rank  and  fortune,  and  married  a  lady  who  was  an 
heiress.  After  his  wife's  death,  and  while  still  only  approach- 
ing middle  age,  he  resolved  to  withdraw  from  the  world, 
incurring  in  doing  so  his  father's  displeasure.  He  does  not 
seem  to  have  joined  any  monastic  society,  though  he  may 
have  taken  the  monastic  vow.  His  chief  friends  were 
Paulinus  of  Nola  and  Martin  of  Tours.  Severus  evinces  a 
low  opinion  of  contemporary  bishops  and  clergy  in  Gaul, 
and  sets  against  them  the  virtues  and  achievements  of 
Martin.  His  Vita  Martini  was  his  earliest  work  {ante,  p. 
297).  Next,  about  403,  he  wrote  his  Historia  Sacra  or 
Chronica,  which  gives  a  rapid  sketch  of  history  from  the 
Creation  to  the  consulship  of  Stilicho,  A.D.  400.  There  is 
reason  to  think  that  an  interesting  passage  from  a  lost  book 
of  Tacitus  can  be  recovered  from  ii.  30.  The  only  con- 
temporary, and  so  far  reliable,  account  of  Priscillianism  is 
found  in  ii.  46—51,  see  also  Dial.  iii.  11-13.  The  Dialogues 
(about  A.D.  405)  are  intended  to  supplement  the  account  of 
St.  Martin,  who  had  now  died ;  but  one  of  the  collocutors 
(i.  1—20)  gives  interesting  reminiscences  of  his  experiences 
in  the  East,  including  various  monastic  stories.  Severus  is 
quite  worth  consulting,  and  his  Latin  style,  wliich  is  excel- 
lent, makes  pleasant  reading.  Latest  edition,  Halm,  Sulp. 
Sev.  Libri  qui  supersunt,  Vindob.,  1866. 

Salvianus,  distinguished  as  a  presbyter  of  Marseilles, 
probably  belonged  to  Treves,  and  had  relatives  at  Cologne. 
His  family  appear  to  have  been  people  of  condition.  He 
married  Palladia,  by  whom  he  had  a  daughter ;  afterwards 
they  agreed  to  adopt  the  ascetic  life,  to  the  great  irritation 
of  Palladia's  father,  who  had  recently  passed  from  paganism 
to  Christianity,  but  could  not  sympathise  with  asceticism ; 
he  broke  off  relations  with  Salvian  and  his  family.  After 
seven  years  Salvian  wrote  to  him  an  elaborate  supplication 
for  a  renewal  of  friendship  {Ep.  iv.),  with  what  effect  we  do 
not  know.  Salvian  seems  to  have  been  in  high  repute  as  a 
religious  and  learned  man ;  he  acted  as  tutor  to  the  son  of 
Eucherius,  bishop  of  Lyons  (Eucherius  having  been  a  married 


313-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  &05 

man  before  he  withdrew  to  monastic  life  at  Lerins),  and 
apparently  could  write  with  great  freedom  to  him  and  to 
other  men  of  ecclesiastical  rank.  His  writings  convey  the 
impression  of  a  sincere  and  intense  mind,  deficient  in  judg- 
ment. His  views  of  the  effect  on  human  salvation  of  alms- 
giving, and  in  general  of  foregoing  the  use  of  property,  are 
thoroughly  one-sided  and  extravagant,  and  he  shows  no  re- 
ceptivity for  the  gracious  aspects  of  Christianity.  But  his 
works  are  important  as  illustrating  the  social  condition  of 
Gaul,  and  partly  also  of  other  parts  of  the  Western  empire, 
e.g.  the  African  province.  His  style  is  excessively  cramped 
and  artificial,  and  there  are  passages  in  his  letters  in  which 
the  sense  seems  to  lose  itself  altogether  in  the  effort  after 
fine  language.  It  is  surprising  how  completely,  alike  in 
thought  and  phrase,  he  has  escaped  the  influence  of  Augus- 
tine. Two  treatises  constitute  his  remaining  works.  One 
is  de  Ghibernatione  Dei,  in  which  he  undertakes  to  deal  with 
the  question  as  to  the  providence  of  God  in  allowing 
calamities  to  fall  on  the  empire  after  it  had  accepted 
Christianity.  It  is  suggestive  not  only  with  respect  to  the 
condition  of  the  common  people,  the  morals  of  the  Gaulish 
gentry,  and  the  action  of  the  barbarians,  but  also  as  regards 
the  imperial  administration.  The  treatise  called  Timotheus, 
also  ad  JEcclesiamj  also  Adversus  Avaritiam,  begins  oddly 
with  an  argument  about  pseudonymous  writing — for  he 
calls  himself  Timotheus,  and  gives  his  reasons.  The  sub- 
stance of  the  book  is  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  voluntary 
poverty.  There  are  also  nine  letters.  Latest  edition  of 
works,  F.  Pauly,  Vindob.,  1883. 

Leo  I.  was  bishop  of  Eome  from  440  to  461,  and  must 
have  been  born  not  far  from  390.  He  is  believed  to  have 
been  a  Eoman  by  birth.  His  writings  indicate  no  familiarity 
with  the  classics,  and  he  was  unacquainted  with  the  Greek 
language.  The  teaching  and  the  spirit  of  the  Western 
Church  possessed  him.  Various  indications  attest  the  im- 
portance of  the  influence  he  was  already  exerting  as  deacon 
and  archdeacon.     When  Sixtus  died  Leo  was  in  Gaul  with 


506       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

a  mission  to  reconcile  Aetius  and  Albinus,  Eoman  generals 
who  were  on  the  brink  of  civil  war.  The  Eoman  church 
elected  Leo  to  the  episcopal  chair  in  his  absence,  and  quietly 
awaited  his  return.  Before  this  time  Cassian  had  dedicated 
to  him  his  work  against  Nestorius  (written  at  Leo's  request) 
in  terms  of  high  respect  and  admiration.  As  pope,  Leo 
brought  into  play  principles  which  were  matter  of  passionate 
conviction  in  his  own  mind.  The  place  of  Christian  Eome 
as  the  centre  of  authority  and  unity,  which,  through  the 
bishop,  must  be  asserted  and  made  effective  throughout 
Christendom,  was  the  thought  that  inspired  him.  A  pre- 
cedency granted  by  the  Church  to  that  see  in  honour  of 
Peter  came  far  short  of  his  conception :  the  voice  of  the 
Lord  Himself  had  granted  the  authority  to  Peter  and  to  his 
successors.  The  firmness  and  consistency  with  which  Leo 
upheld  this  principle  entitle  him  to  be  regarded  as  the 
creator  of  the  mediaeval  Papacy. 

Leo  bore  himself  in  a  manner  not  unworthy  of  these 
high  pretensions.  His  interposition  on  behalf  of  his  flock 
with  Attila  in  452,  and  with  Genseric  in  455,  furnished 
two  of  the  memorable  passages  of  Church  History ;  and  it  is 
not  wonderful  that  legend  stepped  in  to  magnify  what  was 
in  any  view  so  imposing  and  so  memorable.  His  firmness 
as  a  church  ruler  was  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Eastern 
niyricum,  which  he  claimed  as  subject  to  the  ordinary 
jurisdiction  of  his  see ;  and  in  the  case  of  Hilary  of  Aries, 
whose  alleged  variations  from  canonical  rule  he  claimed  the 
right  to  correct  in  a  manner  which  must  be  called  not  only 
dictatorial  but  extremely  harsh.  In  this  case  an  edict  of 
the  Emperor  Valentinian  ill.  came  to  his  aid,  which  enforced 
in  the  most  ample  terms,  throughout  the  West  at  least,  all 
the  authority  which  Leo  claimed.  In  like  manner  he 
asserted  his  authority  in  Africa.  It  must  not  be  thought, 
however,  that  Leo  was  willing  in  the  interest  of  his  own 
see  to  dislocate  or  to  neglect  the  existing  constitution  of  the 
Church.  Eather,  he  claimed  to  be  entitled  to  guard  as  well 
as  to  control  it. 

In  the  department  of  theology  Leo  became  especially 


313-451]  ECCLESIASTICAL   PERSONAGES  507 

notable  by  his  attitude  on  the  Eutychian  controversy, 
described  in  Chap.  XXIII.  His  letter  to  Flavian  {Ei^.  28) 
became  especially  famous,  having  acquired  a  kind  of  symboli- 
cal authority.  As  regards  Western  questions  his  influence 
was  exerted  against  Priscillianism  and  Mauicheism,  and  also 
against  Pelagianism.  As  to  Semi-Pelagianism,  it  is  pretty 
plain  that  its  characteristic  features  had  no  attraction  for 
Leo :  Augustine  had  exercised  a  very  considerable  influence 
upon  his  thinking.  At  the  same  time  his  is  a  cautious  and 
qualified  Augustinianism,  so  far  as  the  question  of  grace  is 
concerned. 

Much  more  might  be  said  of  Leo;  but  it  is  a  subject 
which  rather  belongs  to  the  volume  on  Latin  Christianity, 

It  may  be  added  tliat  Leo  evinced  a  devout  and,  no 
doubt,  a  sincere  faith  in  the  Divine  sanction  of  the  claims 
he  made,  as  well  as  the  Divine  aid  on  which  he  ought  to 
reckon  in  the  difficulties  which  he  encountered.  Some 
works  have  been  ascribed  to  him  on  grounds  which  are 
quite  uncertain.  Those  which  are  unquestionably  authentic 
consist  of  ninety-six  sermons  and  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  letters.  They  contain  much  which  is  illustrative  of 
the  age.  Leo's  style  is  forcible  and  dignified,  but  rather 
elaborate.  The  edition  of  Ballerini  is  still  the  best,  repro- 
duced by  Migne  (54-56).  See  also,  among  much  other 
literature,  Bohringer,  Die  Kirche  Christi  u.  ihre  Zeugcn^  i.  4 ; 
Milman's  Latin  Christianity,  i.  c.  4 ;  Herzog's  Real-Encyclo- 
pcedie,  vol.  viii.  (article  by  K.  Mtiller) ;  and  a  careful  article 
by  Canon  Gore  in  Smith's  Biographical  Dictionary, 


CHAPTER    XXXIl 

Processes  of  Change 

During  the  period  which  we  have  surveyed,  the  Church 
experienced  rapid  growth  and  various  fortunes;  and  from 
these  and  from  deeper  causes  change  was  always  going  on. 
We  propose  to  enumerate  some  of  the  points  to  which  this 
remark  applies. 

The  Church's  own  consciousness  as  regards  this  matter 
of  change  cannot  be  understood,  unless  we  have  regard  to  an 
influence  constantly  operating.  At  each  stage,  whatever 
existed  as  approved  or  authoritative  was  apt  to  be  regarded 
as  having  been  so  from  the  beginning;  and  even  when  men 
were  aware  that  things  at  first  had  not  been  exactly  so,  they 
readily  assumed  substantial  identity  between  past  and 
present,  and  rated  differences  as  inconsiderable.  This  is 
common  in  human  history ;  for,  indeed,  every  development 
comes  out  of  something  that  existed  before ;  there  is  therefore 
always  some  continuity ;  and  that  continuity  can  be  repre- 
sented to  oneself  as  identity,  virtual  if  not  literal.  But 
besides,  in  this  case  Christian  piety  contemplated  the  Church 
as  something  supernatural  and  divine ;  now  that  which  has 
been  all  along  divine  must  have  been  all  along  constant  and 
steadfast;  so  that  what  men  found  it  to  be  to-day,  they 
presumed  it  to  have  been  from  the  first.  The  Church 
undoubtedly  showed  a  vital  capacity  for  change ;  but  each 
development,  as  it  was  accepted  and  approved,  was  con- 
secrated ;  and  each,  as  it  became  sacred,  became  also  to  the 
mind's  eye  a  feature  of  an  apostolic  whole.  Each,  therefore, 
had  a  plausible  claim  to  have  been  apostolic  itself.^ 

^  Compare  the  "Apostolic"  Constitutions  and  Canons  and  tlie  various  early 
collections  of  laws ;  the  traditions  regarding  the  Apostles'  Creed ;  the  lists  of 

608 


A.D.  313-451]  PROCESSES    OF    CHANGE  509 

All  inevitable  change  on  the  Church  itself  must  be 
borne  in  mind.  It  begins  with  men  and  women  who  have 
been  personally  impressed  by  the  Christian  message  and  the 
Christian  life:  though  at  no  time  unmixed,  it  had  at  the 
outset  the  freshness  and  vitality  to  be  expected  in  a  society 
so  constituted.  In  the  following  generations  it  continued  to 
be  recruited  under  the  same  influences.  But  its  membership 
included  also,  in  a  growing  proportion,  those  who  had  been 
born  within  the  fold,  children  of  Christian  families.  These 
had  the  benefit  of  Christian  home  influences,  and  many  of 
them  received  the  spirit  of  Christianity  into  their  hearts ; 
but  of  course  it  was  not  so  with  all :  many  of  them  were 
held  to  the  Church  in  a  traditionary  way,  and  their 
Christianity  was  worn  mainly  as  a  habit  of  outward  life. 
Besides  this  it  is  plain  that,  in  spite  of  the  unpopularity  of 
Christianity  and  the  persecutions  that  befell  it,  inducements 
existed  which  could  persuade  "  false  brethren  "  to  seek  and 
to  retain  a  connection  with  the  congregations.^ 

The  writings  of  the  New  Testament  grew  into  a  settled 
form,  and  acquired  more  definite  authority.  From  the  be- 
ginning^ the  authority  of  the  apostles  was  owned  as  of  men 
commissioned  and  qualified  to  announce  Christ's  gospel  and 
to  build  up  His  Church.  Accordingly  their  writings  were 
read  publicly  in  the  churches ;  and  that  seems  to  have  been 
so  from  the  earliest  possible  period.  At  first,  however,  the 
impression  of  the  place  and  use  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles 

bishops.  So,  after  the  ascetic  and  monastic  life  had  made  good  its  place,  it 
began  to  be  maintained  that  such  had  been  the  life  of  the  earliest  Church. 
Hieron.,  Catal.  c.  11  ;  Cassian,  Cullat.  xviii.  5  ;  CceTwb.  ii.  5  ;  Epiph.,  ITasr* 
IxL  4.  This  mode  of  view  never  prevailed  absolutely,  but  it  was  predominant. 
Tertullian,  and  afterwards  Jerome,  were  aware  of  particular  changes  ;  but 
that  did  not  disturb  their  habitual  mood,  which  carried  back  all  but  every- 
thing to  the  first  days. 

*  These  mixtures  were  iuevitable.  Speaking  generally,  however,  it  is 
reasonable  to  think  that  the  lead  lay  with  the  more  devoted  and  earnest  men. 

'  The  Old  Testament  writings  had  been  taken  over  from  the  first,  and 
their  authority  as  the  oracles  of  God  was  never  questioned  in  the  orthodox 
Church.  Their  divine  character  was  all  the  more  impressive  on  this  account, 
that  while  primarily  adapted  to  the  Old  Testament  economy,  they  were  held 
to  be  pregnant  with  New  Testament  meanings. 


510       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH        [a.d. 

might  be  vague,  and  the  need  was  not  yet  acutely  felt  of 
separating  them  conclusively  from  the  wealth  of  traditions 
and  of  prophesyings  still  current  on  the  one  hand,  and  from 
the  writings  on  the  other,  which  issued  occasionally  from 
Christian  pens,  presumably  not  without  some  influence  from 
the  Spirit.  But  experience  soon  showed  the  importance  of 
distinguishing  the  reliable  monuments  of  apostolic  testimony 
and  of  guarding  them  as  the  authentic  monument  of  the 
Christian  revelation. 

The  boundaries  of  the  New  Testament  Canon  were  not 
finally  settled ;  but  a  rapid  agreement  took  place  as  to  the 
greater  and  more  important  part  of  it.  This  amount  of 
agreement  had  been  reached  at  all  events  in  the  second 
century.^  As  regards  the  Old  Testament,  the  allegorical 
principle  of  interpretation  received  a  great  development 
during  our  whole  period.  The  whole  Scripture  was  the 
record  of  Divine  revelation;  but  the  growing  reliance  on 
church  authority,  both  as  tradition  and  as  legislation, 
divided  the  regard  of  the  Christians  and  assumed  a  practical 
supremacy.  As  to  New  Testament  teaching,  the  modes  of 
thought  of  Paul,  of  1  Peter,  and  of  Hebrews  are  for  the 
most  part  scantily  apprehended  and  faintly  felt.  In  the 
teaching  of  John  the  Logos  doctrine  was  appreciated  from 
the  first,  apparently,  the  other  elements  not  till  later. 

The  Apostle  Paul  sums  up  his  gospel  in  such  passages 
as  1  Cor.  XV.  3—5,  and  the  baptismal  formula  in  Matt,  xxviii. 

^  At  what  date  in  it  is  disputed.  Cf.  Zahn,  Geschichte  des  ¥.  T.  Kanons, 
8vo,  1888-1889,  with  A.  Harnack's  Priifung,  1890.  Zahn  is  apt  perhaps  to 
overargue  his  case  ;  but  surely  a  prevailing  practical  understanding  as  to  N.  T, 
Canon  is  seen  operating  at  the  middle  of  the  century,  at  any  rate.  Six  or  seven 
books  of  our  present  Canon  continued  to  be  questioned  or  rejected  in  some 
churches,  and  some  writings  not  now  received  continued  for  a  time  to  be  cited 
as  "Scripture,"  especially  at  Alexandria.  All  along,  however,  the  leading 
idea  on  the  subject  is  that  expressed  by  Clem.  Al  ,  Strom,  vii.  16 :  "Exo/Aex' 
ykp  T7]v  dpxw  '■^5  didaaKoXias  toO  KvpLov,  did  re  tQiv  irpo<pr)TQv,  8id  re  rod 
eiaYY^^l-ov,  Kal  did  tCov  jxaKapioov  diroarbXiav  iroXvTpdircas  Kal  iroXv/iiepQs  i^ 
dpxv^  ets  riXos  rjyovfj^vuv  ttjs  yvdiaeia^.  And  again,  of  the  heretics :  Alpovv- 
Tou  8^  t6  86^av  avTois  virdpx^i.v  ivapyiarepov  ri  rb  irpos  tov  Kvpiov  Sid  twp 
irpoip'rjTClJv  elprjfi^vov,  Kal  iirb  tov  eiiayyeXiov,  irpbs  h-f.  5k  koX  tCov  aTroarbXtap 
av/ifiapTvpotjfxevdv  re  Kal  ^epaioij/ieyoy. 


313-451]  PROCESSES   OF   CHANGE  511 

expresses  heads  of  faith.  Yet  the  existence  of  a  formed 
creed  in  the  first  century  cannot  be  established ;  it  would 
be  easier  to  show  ground  for  asserting  the  existence  of  short 
codes  of  Christian  morality.  Yet  some  well-considered  way 
of  expressing  the  mutual  understanding  of  the  Church  and 
the  neophyte  at  Baptism  ^  was  plainly  desirable,  and  there  is 
good  ground  for  believing  that  a  form  of  creed,  suggested  by 
the  baptismal  formula,  but  amplified,  was  in  existence  in  the 
second  century  in  many  churches,  and  it  may  have  existed 
earlier.  This  form  varied  in  its  terms  a  little  more  in  the 
East  than  in  the  West,  but  not  very  much  anywhere.  It 
was  a  shorter  form  of  what  is  now  called  the  Apostles' 
Creed.  What  ancient  writers  call  the  Eegula  {Kavoiv  Trj9 
akriOeia^,  ecclesiastica  prcedicatio)  may  be  described  as  a 
somewhat  more  free  conception  of  the  way  in  which  the 
Church  regarded  its  faith,  and  of  the  way  in  which  she 
was  prepared  to  expound  and  apply  it.  The  importance  of 
definite  and  well-weighed  utterance  of  faith  was  strongly 
impressed  upon  the  Church's  mind  by  the  Gnostic  contro- 
versy. 

Gnosticism  awakened  many  minds  to  the  dangers  which 
might  assail  the  life  of  Christianity  in  connection  with  false 
doctrine.  A  watchful  scrutiny  of  doctrine  set  in;  and  at 
the  same  time  the  maintenance  of  true  doctrine  became 
associated  with  the  conception  of  the  Church,  as  qualified 
and  commissioned  to  give  forth  the  proper  watchword  and 
to  guarantee  it.  This  seemed  the  shortest  way  to  settle 
questions  and  to  end  disputes.  Still  further,  in  proportion 
as  this  gained  ground,  faith  became  a  legal  obligation ;  the 
creed  was  prescribed  by  authority,  and  it  demanded  obedi- 
ence. It  would  be  far  from  true  to  say  that  Christian 
doctrine  ceased  to  be  considered  as  the  exhibition  of  objects 
which  appeal  to  the  heart,  or  as  an  intellectual  whole 
which  possesses  the  intellectual  congruity  of  truth.  But  the 
legal  and  ecclesiastical  view  took  precedence ;  and  the  atti- 
tude of  mind  expressed  in  the  quotation  from  Clem.  Al. 
(see  last  page),  though  never  repudiated,  became  modified  by 

*  Of.  Acta  viiL  37,  where  the  eiinuch's  confession  is  tin  interpolation. 


512       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

reliance  on  the  authority  of  the  existing  Church,  as  guaran- 
teeing the  fundamentals. 

Meanwhile  the  Church,  whose  prerogatives  were  thus 
conceived,  was  itself  changing  its  character.  For  a  long 
time,  indeed,  the  right  of  the  membership  to  have  their  mind 
expressed  and  regarded  in  important  matters  was  not  denied. 
But  the  relative  weight  of  the  clergy  steadily  grew. 

The  distinction  which  came  to  be  fixed  in  the  terms 
presbyter  and  bishop,  as  names  of  distinct  offices,  was  not 
at  first  of  great  importance,  but  its  importance  grew.  The 
bishop,  as  the  one  person  always  prominent,  became  the  centre 
of  church  life,  attracted  more  regard,  and  was  presently 
fixed  on  as  the  type  or  expression  of  the  unity  of  his  own 
church,  as  well  as  the  natural  guardian  of  the  wider  unity. 
He  was  the  chosen  leader ;  to  rally  round  him  was  a  point 
of  loyalty.  Important  functions  became  fixed  as  proper  to 
him  only ;  and  as  perpetual  chairman  he  could  make  his 
consent  essential  in  nominations  to  office,  and  in  many  points 
of  congregational  or  clerical  action.  When  councils  began 
,to  be  held,  the  bishop,  as  the  most  representative  as  well  as 
the  most  authoritative  man  of  his  church,  was  present  in  its 
behalf.  In  this  way  the  rules  which  were  adopted  for  the 
churches  of  a  province  came  to  be  settled  by  the  will  of  its 
bishops. 

It  may  be  believed  that  in  many  cases  the  bishop,  as  the 
chosen  pastor  of  the  church,  was  really  its  best  representa- 
tive— the  man  best  able  to  express  with  insight  and  judg- 
ment the  wants  and  the  convictions  of  the  flock.  All  that  is 
suggested  is  that  on  various  lines  power  accrued  to  bishops. 
That  power  assumed  more  and  more  the  character  of  an 
official  attribute ;  and  as  the  power  grew,  a  Divine  origin  for 
it  was  claimed  and  was  conceded. 

In  connection  with  the  importance  attached  to  the 
witness  of  the  churches,  in  ascertaining  the  original  Christian 
teaching,  the  succession  (real  or  supposed)  of  the  bishops  in 
great  churches  was  cited,  as  we  have  seen.  Hence  it  was 
suggested  to  be  eminently  their  office  to  guard  the  true 
tradition;    and,   in   fact,  we  need  not   doubt  that  Gnostio 


313^61]  PROCESSES    OF   CHANGE  513 

assaults  had  in  various  cases  been  repelled  by  the  churches 
rallying  round  their  bishops.  This  function  was  supposed 
to  be  accompanied  with  some  grace  tending  to  guarantee 
the  right  discharge  of  it ;  if  not  in  the  case  of  each  single 
bishop,  yet  in  the  case  of  the  episcopate. 

The  bishops,  having  such  functions,  appeared  to  the 
Christian  mind  to  be  carrying  on  the  function  of  the  Apos- 
tolate,  and  they  themselves  claimed  that  character ;  for  the 
Apostles  had  been,  after  Christ,  the  authorities  and  teachers 
of  the  Church.  Here  the  growth  is  very  clear.  Ignatius 
associates  the  Apostles  rather  with  the  presbyters ;  and  he 
does  not  speak  of  succession,  but  of  a  kind  of  representation : 
the  bishops  suggest  Christ,  the  presbyters  the  Apostles  {ad 
Magn.  vi.,  ad  Trail,  ii,  iii.,  ad  Smyrn.  viii).  Irenseus,  for  the 
most  part  at  least,  includes  the  presbyters  among  the  official 
witnesses  of  the  faith.  But  soon  the  style  of  thought  and 
speech  which  regards  the  bishops  as  the  successors  of  the 
Apostles  becomes  fixed.  Tertullian  takes  it  in  his  larger 
and  freer  way;  Hippolytus  assumes  it  once;  but  Cyprian 
is  technical,  literal,  and  peremptory. 

Again,  the  change  took  place  by  which  the  bishop,  from 
being  chief  pastor  of  a  congregation,  came  to  have  as  his 
irapoLKia  a  city  with  a  district  around  it,  including  various 
groups  of  Christians ;  various  centres  of  worship  came  to  be 
required  and  were  provided ;  and  the  clergy  were  organised 
with  a  view  to  all  this.  The  change  raised  the  bishop  still 
more  decidedly  above  the  level  of  the  flock,  and  accentuated 
the  difference  of  rank  between  him  and  the  presbyters. 

Once  more,  the  bishop  of  the  chief  city  of  a  province 
became  official  chairman  of  the  provincial  episcopate,  and  the 
depositary  of  some  special  powers,  as  metropolitan.  Also, 
the  bishops  of  some  ancient  and  great  churches,  especially 
Eome,  Alexandria,  and  Antioch,  had  a  dignity  and  authority 
which,  though  vague,  was  more  than  metropolitan.  Men  in 
those  great  positions  were  really  princes  of  the  Church.  So 
far  the  development  had  gone  when  our  period  ended. 

But  the  inferior  clergy  also  shared,  in  their  degree,  in  the 
enlarging  ideas  of  official  power.     It  cannot  be  doubted  that 
33 


514  THE   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC    CHURCH  [a.d. 

from  the  earliest  period  the  office-bearers  were  an  extremely 
influential  class  in  the  churches.  They  were  so,  because, 
as  a  rule,  they  were  the  most  earnest,  able,  and  energetic 
Christians.  But  things  moved  towards  the  final  arrange- 
ment by  which  congregations  were  to  be  formed  within  most 
bishoprics,  each  with  its  presiding  presbyter  and  clerical 
staff.  The  time  of  the  clergy  was  fully  occupied  with 
clerical  duties,  and  they  became,  as  a  rule,  dependent  on 
church  funds  for  their  support.  Moreover,  in  connection 
with  the  functions  usually  fulfilled  by  each  class,  an  idea 
was  formed  of  the  official  power  imparted  at  ordination.  The 
presbyter,  for  example,  in  connection  with  the  sacrificial  view 
of  the  eucharist,  shared  so  far  with  the  bishop  in  what  was 
fixed  as  the  sacerdotal  character.  But  what  this  as  yet 
meant  is  vague :  the  time,  too,  when  the  indelible  character 
of  orders  became  the  accepted  view  (so  that  even  a  deposed 
and  excommunicated  priest  should  not  become  a  layman),  it 
seems  impossible  to  fix. 

The  Church,  clothed  with  these  features  and  associations, 
continued  to  be  the  object  of  the  old  faith.  The  Church 
is  the  assembly  of  Christians  joined  in  the  name  and  under 
the  authority  of  Christ,  reproducing  itself  everywhere.  As 
often  as  they  came  together  in  this  character  the  Christians 
(not  then  only,  but  then  eminently)  met  their  Lord,  and 
expected  His  edifying  grace.  No  conviction  was  stronger  in 
the  early  Christian  mind  than  that  of  the  presence  of  the 
Lord  to  fulfil  His  promises.  But  with  the  perils  and  an- 
tagonisms of  the  Gnostic  crisis  it  became  a  more  anxious 
question  How  and  Where  shall  we  be  sure  of  His  saving 
presence  ?  No  doubt,  in  the  fellowship  of  His  Church. 
But  were  there  not  false  churches,  so  false  that  in  them 
men  could  not  be  sure — much  the  reverse  ?  The  discrimina- 
tion of  the  true  Church  from  the  false  ones  became  vital, 
because  so  many  minds  demanded  to  be  at  rest  as  to 
authentic  contact  with  the  saving  forces  of  Christianity.  In 
the  circumstances  created  by  Gnosticism  it  was  a  good 
practical  answer  to  the  question  to  say  that  the  true  Church 
was    the    company   of    churches   throughout   the   world   in 


313-461]  PROCESSES    OF   CHANGE  515 

fellowship  through  their  pastors  with  the  great  historical 
churches.  And  the  effective  way  to  hold  that  ground  was 
to  affirm  with  growing  vehemence  that  as  the  grace  of 
Christ  was  certainly  on  the  one  side  of  the  line,  so  it  was 
wholly  absent  on  the  other.  This  view  was  rapidly  ex- 
tended even  to  churches  which  agreed  with  the  great  Church 
in  doctrine,  and  had  become  separated  merely  on  points  of 
practice.^ 

Here  especially,  however,  it  is  to  be  observed  that 
various  meanings  combined  under  the  one  term  Church. 
Augustine,  for  whom  the  subject  had  a  special  attraction, 
speaks  of  the  Church,  as  others  did,  as  the  organised  Society 
which  lives  in  the  administration  and  fellowship  of  the 
authentic  sacraments ;  but  yet  again,  and  very  emphatically, 
the  true  Church  is  the  corpus  Christi,  the  society  of  those 
who  are  vitally  united  to  Him  in  faith  and  love,  while  the 
mass  of  unspiritual  Christians  (laymen  and  clergy)  are  not 
the  Church,  though  in  a  sense  they  are  in  it;  again,  the 
Church  is  the  numerus  electorum — which  does  not  quite 
agree  with  either  of  the  former  conceptions,  for  there  are 
elect  persons  who  are  not  yet  in  the  outward  fellowship — 
and  there  are  persons  at  present  holy  who  may  fall  away ; 
again,  the  Church  is  celestial  (an  old  thought  which  found 
in  earlier  days  an  almost  Gnostic  expression),  only  in  the 
heavens  does  she  reveal  her  true  character,  here  she  cannot. 
All  these  various  lines  of  thought  had  held  Christian  minds. 
But  whatever  faith  and  whatever  veneration  attended  any 
of  these  lines  of  thought,  the  concrete  organisation  which 
men  saw — represented  chiefly  by  the  clergy — fell  heir  to  all. 
That  alone  more  and  more  stood  for  the  Church  in  most 
men's  minds.  As  the  Church's  state  discredited  the  thought 
of  an  inwardly  holy  society,  men  clung  the  more  to  the 
belief  in  a  society  whose  peculiarity  and  whose  efficiency 
were  outwardly  guaranteed.  So  the  Church — concrete  and 
visible,  acting  and  speaking  through  the  clergy — fell  heir  to 
much  of  trust,  veneration,  and  submission,  which  were  in- 
discriminate and  blind. 

^  Cypr.,  de  Unitate,  passim. 


516       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

The  eventual  rejection  of  all  Christianity  which  could 
not  bow  to  the  "  Great "  Church  was  no  doubt  due,  in  a 
large  measure,  to  the  sectarianism  which  has  so  often  in- 
spired those  who  claim  to  be  Catholic  Christians.  But  it 
was  due  also  to  the  desire  to  grasp  as  strongly  as  possible 
the  elements  of  security  and  rest  that  seemed  to  be  afforded 
by  the  historical  position  of  the  "  Catholic  "  society.  "  This 
is  the  Church  that  is  right ;  it  is  so  right  that  everything 
else  is  completely  wrong."  To  take  ground  in  this  way,  to 
emphasise  the  latter  clause  as  well  as  the  former,  was  felt  to 
be  both  a  comfort  and  a  strength. 

The  consent,  then,  of  the  older  and  greater  churches  was 
a  practical  standard  by  which  the  true  teaching  should  be 
ascertained.  This  was,  in  point  of  fact,  a  real  guarantee  at 
the  end  of  the  second  century.  But  if  so,  it  embodied  (so 
men  inferred)  the  permanent  divine  method,  it  was  the 
proper  authority  in  such  cases.^  As  yet  this  principle  was 
applied  only  to  fundamentals,  to  the  broad  outline  of  the 
Christian  faith ;  but  by  degrees  it  lent  itself  to  much  more 
detailed  application.  All  these  principles  became  more 
vigorous  and  insistent  when  it  began  to  be  possible  to 
assemble  general  councils  to  speak  for  the  whole  Church. 

In  regard  to  the  sacraments,  it  is  not  easy  to  make  a 
reliable  report;  for  definition  implies  discrimination,  and 
sacramental  language  was  always  suggestive  rather  than 
discriminative. 

The  tendency  here,  as  in  other  church  relations,  was  to 
realise  the  spiritual  through  the  outward  and  material,  so  as 
to  find  in  the  latter  a  definite  and  secure  guarantee  for  the 
former.  Therefore  sacramental  modes  of  speech  were  used 
with  a  growing  tendency  to  assume  that  the  outward  rite 
carried  inevitably  the  spiritual  benefit.^     Yet  no  thought- 

^  One  great  church,  though  entitled  to  influence  and  to  respectful  treat- 
ment, could  not  claim  authority  outside  its  own  territory.  Note  the  attitude 
of  Cyprian  and  Firmilian  towards  Rome. 

^  With  an  interesting  diff'erence  in  the  two  cases  of  baptism  and  the 
eucharist.  In  baptism  regeneration  was  the  point  of  view — a  change  in  the 
recipient ;  in  the  eucharist,  the  presence  in  some  supernatural  way  of  the 
Lord's  body — a  change  in  the  elements. 


313-451]  PROCESSES    OF    CHANGE  617 

ful  Christian  could  forget  that  grace  is  a  Divine  presence 
and  working,  it  is  spirit  dealing  with  spirit.  For  example, 
in  adult  baptism  the  spiritual  blessing  must  relate  itself  to 
faith  and  repentance,  which  are  inward  and  spiritual ;  hence 
the  common  language,  which  assumed  or  seemed  to  assume 
actual  regeneration  in  all  such  cases,  had  to  be  taken,  if 
men  reflected,  in  a  provisional  sense.  It  was  a  judgment 
of  charity.  But  as  the  proportion  of  infant  to  adult  baptism 
increased,  and  that  form  of  administration  became  the 
prevailing  type,  the  tendency  to  literalism  bad  less  to 
control  it.  There  could  be  no  resistance  or  unbelief  in  an 
infant. 

In  the  eucharist,  also,  the  literal  thought  of  a  mysteri- 
ous local  presence  of  our  Lord's  body,  and  the  more  spiritual 
thought  that  the  sacrament  is  an  ordained  sign  and  pledge 
of  the  gift  to  us  of  Christ,  in  the  grace  of  His  Incarnation 
and  His  death,  to  be  ours, — could,  either  of  them,  be  em- 
bodied in  the  sacramental  language ;  and  the  second  is  the 
unambiguous  sense  of  great  teachers  (Origen,  Augustine); 
but  the  first  gained  ground,  especially  with  those  who 
welcomed  every  suggestion  of  sacred  wonders  embodied  in 
the  outward  ministrations  of  the  Church. 

In  regard  to  this  sacrament,  however,  the  development 
of  the  sacrificial  view  is  the  change  which  is  more  im- 
portant. 

As  regards  both  ordinances,  the  tendency  to  enrich  and 
multiply  the  ritual  with  a  view  to  impressiveness,  operated 
powerfully.  It  is  to  be  kept  in  view  that  the  application 
of  a  distinctive  name  (sacramentum,  fivaTTjptop)  to  certain 
ordinances  exclusively,  had  not  yet  become  definite.  The 
terms  were  used  loosely,  and  could  be  applied  to  anything 
that  was  held  sacred,  especially  if  also  it  could  be  regarded 
as  symbolic. 

In  rejecting  Gnosticism  and  Montanism  it  was  not  neces- 
sary to  formulate  orthodoxy.  Gnosticism  was  rejected,  with 
all  its  fruits,  as  a  perverse  intellectual  method,  and  Montanism 
as  a  claim  to  originate  a  new  dispensation.  Orthodox  think- 
ing was  stimulated  by  these  discussions  as  well  as  by  the 


618       THE  ANCIENT  CATHOLIC  CHURCH       [a.d. 

collision  with  paganism,  and  the  Church  felt  so  much  the 
richer ;  but  these  treasures  could  remain  in  men's  minds  and 
writings,  without  being  weighed  and  stamped.  It  was  the 
third-century  discussions  concerning  the  higher  nature  of 
Christ  that  led  to  dogmatic  precision  in  regard  to  propositions 
renounced  on  the  one  hand  or  affirmed  on  the  other.  Teach- 
ing definite  enough,  and  in  general  harmony  with  the  decisions 
of  the  third  century,  had  no  doubt  been  put  forth  earlier, 
e.g.  by  Justin  and  Irenaeus ;  but  we  may  admit  that,  previous 
to  the  discussions  and  decisions  of  the  third  century,  the 
general  mind  of  the  churches  had  not  reached  so  definite  an 
understanding  on  the  points  involved.  Yet  students  who 
follow  the  course  of  the  Monarchian  discussions  will  probably 
be  convinced  that  the  churches  already  had  a  mind  which 
found  utterance  in  rejecting  the  teaching  of  Sabellius  and  of 
Paul  of  Antioch.  That  is  to  say,  that  if,  before  these 
decisions,  a  definite  doctrinal  position  capable  of  precise 
expression,  had  not  yet  been  attained  by  the  Church  as  a 
whole,  yet  an  attitude  of  mind  and  heart  existed,  a  way  of 
thinking  and  feeling  about  Christ,  which  predisposed  most 
Christians  to  reject  alike  the  higher  and  the  lower 
Monarchianism.  Still  it  is  to  be  observed  that  these 
decisions,  as  acquiesced  in  and  supported  by  the  churches, 
took  two  things  for  granted  :  first,  that  the  Church  possessed 
materials  adequate  to  enable  her  conclusively  to  decide  the 
questions  raised  ;  and  second,  that  the  points  decided  could 
be  and  should  be  treated  as  essential,  so  that  conscientious 
dissidents  on  those  points  should  no  longer  obtain  a  hearing 
in  the  Catholic  Church.  These  positions  were  assumed  as 
involved  in  the  main  question ;  but  they  were  assumed 
silently,  without  being  made  matter  of  sepai^ate  considera- 
tion. The  writer  is  not  disposed  to  question  either  of  them ; 
but  the  student  may  do  well  to  attend  to  them  in  connection 
with  the  topics  of  the  nature  of  church  power,  and  the 
limits  within  which  it  should  be  exercised.  The  positions  in 
question  constituted,  on  the  part  of  the  Church,  steps  in  the 
formation  of  a  habit  of  action  which  was  subsequently  to 
receive  great  developments.     At  what  point  did  that  habit 


313-451]  PROCESSES    OP   CHANGE  619 

carry  the  Church  beyond  the  bounds  of  legitimate  and  whole- 
some authority  ? 

Down  to  the  Council  of  Nicsea  no  creed  but  the  bap- 
tismal one  existed  either  for  layman  or  clergyman  :  only, 
some  Eastern  churches  seem  to  have  introduced  into  that 
creed  clauses  or  phrases  which  had  a  certain  relation  to 
current  theological  controversies.  The  best  known  case  is 
the  creed  of  Csesarea,  recited  at  Nicsea  by  Eusebius. 

From  the  earliest  period  there  must  have  been  consulta- 
tion with  a  view  to  mutual  aid  and  mutual  understanding 
between  churches  and  between  districts,  and  the  organisa- 
tion of  councils  to  regulate  this  department  was  an  obvious 
expedient.  The  religious  revolution  associated  with  the 
name  of  Constautine  rendered  it  possible  to  assemble  at 
Niciea  a  council  which  could  claim  to  represent  the  Christian 
Church  at  large.  In  the  chapter  occupied  with  that  subject 
attention  has  been  directed  to  the  tendency  of  such  a  council 
to  concentrate  and  crystaUise  a  mass  of  sentiment  about  the 
Church,  and  to  give  a  decisive  direction  to  men's  thoughts 
about  the  Church's  competency  in  the  field  of  Christian 
truth.     What  has  been  said  need  not  be  repeated  here. 

It  might  be  thought  likely  that  the  craft  and  passion, 
the  intrigue  and  the  violence  which  ere  long  were  con- 
spicuous in  the  management  of  councils,  would  undermine 
their  authority.  But  the  set  which  men's  minds  had  taken, 
and  the  craving  for  such  an  authority  in  order  to  complete 
the  structure  in  which  men's  souls  desired  to  live, — these 
forces  were  too  strong  to  be  affected  by  scandals.  So  the 
notorious  personal  influences,  and  the  personal  manoeuvres 
which  characterise  the  Vatican,  seem  to  produce  no  appreci- 
able failure  of  faith  in  Papal  infallibility  on  the  part  of 
those  who-  are  disposed  that  way. 

It  is  remarkable,  however,  that  the  Pelagian  and  Semi- 
Pelagian  controversies  (while  they  set  in  motion  theological 
tendencies,  Augustinian  and  anti-Augustinian,  of  a  very 
strong  and  durable  kind,  and  while  at  least  great  features 
of  Augustinian  thought  and  feeling  became  dominant  in  the 
West)  produced  no  such  clear  -  cut  and  detailed  dogmatic 


520  ME   ANCIENT   CATHOLIC   CHURCH  [a.d. 

formulae,  accepted  and  enforced  by  church  authority,  as  were 
called  forth  by  the  questions  about  the  Trinity  and  the 
Person  of  Christ. 

It  is  to  be  noticed,  finally,  that  the  fourth  century  saw 
the  tendencies  in  action  which  were  destined  to  render 
multitudinism  triumphant  in  the  Church,  i.e.  to  bring  it  to 
pass  that  the  whole  population  of  the  empire,  and  of  the 
kingdoms  which  succeeded  it,  became  members  of  the  Church 
and  partakers  of  Christian  ordinances  at  her  hands.  That 
was  a  great  change  from  the  earlier  day,  not  so  much  be- 
cause the  number  of  Christians  was  so  greatly  increased,  but 
because  Christianity  for  the  masses  existed  as  something 
passively  accepted,  and  not  as  the  expression  of  individual 
decision.  If  it  lay  in  the  line  of  the  Church's  calling  to 
resist  this  tendency,  or  effectually  to  control  it,  the  ideas 
which  prevailed  as  to  the  relation  of  the  inward  to  the 
outward  in  religion  rendered  the  task  very  difficult.  The 
Church  was  involved  in  the  thousand  compromises  arising 
out  of  this  situation.  Her  protest  against  these,  or  rather 
her  protest  that  something  more  individual  and  more  de- 
cisive could  be  contemplated,  was  embodied  mainly  in 
Monasticism.  Efforts  to  raise  the  standard  of  the  common 
Christianity  were  made  from  time  to  time ;  very  often  it 
was  an  effort  to  carry  over  lessons  and  influences  from  the 
monasteries  to  the  general  Christian  society. 

One  particular  but  important  phase  of  the  process  just 
alluded  to  was  the  change  which  took  place  in  the  method 
of  the  Church's  discipline  and  in  the  very  conception  of  it. 
On  the  one  hand,  discipline  was  discouraged  by  the  refractory 
and  irreformable  material  with  which  it  had  to  deal.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  impression  that  the  process  constituted 
the  one  method  of  obtaining  assured  forgiveness,- suggested 
the  extension  of  discipline  to  sins  which  had  not  become 
scandals — and  to  sins  not  contemplated  by  the  earlier 
discipline.  In  accommodating  the  procedure  of  the  Church 
and  of  penitents  to  these  impressions  a  step  was  made 
towards  the  eventual  creation  of  the  Eoman  Sacrament  of 
Penance. 


313-451]  PROCESSES   OF    CHANGE  bH 

But  a  more  serious  result  was  this :  with  tlie  flood  of 
new  proselytes  the  Church  acquired  a  constituency  which 
could  only  be  dealt  with  on  legal  principles :  and  such 
principles  could  be  applied  only  in  the  way  of  enjoining 
certain  observances.  TImt  alone  could  be  practically  intel- 
ligible to  the  mass.  The  assumption  followed,  that  when 
these  observances  were  passively  accepted,  at  least  without 
disbelief  or  contradiction,  they  would  do  their  work,  would 
confer  and  accomplish  the  Christian  salvation.  On  any 
other  view,  what  must  become  of  the  mass  of  recognised 
Christians  ?  The  theory  which  this  implied  settled  on 
men's  minds  like  a  fate.  Christ  has  furnished  us  with  a 
system  of  church  ordinances  which,  if  reverently  complied 
with,  do  mysteriously  effect  salvation. 

Once  more,  the  character  of  the  Church's  new  constitu- 
ency accelerated  the  tendencies  to  a  paganised  worship. 
Worship  of  saints  and  martyrs,  of  sacred  pictures  and  relics, 
of  the  eucharist,  of  the  crucifix,  worship  which  multiplied 
alike  the  objects  of  reverence  and  the  splendour  of  ritual, 
became  most  popular,  because  it  was  far  more  congenial  to 
the  really  pagan  people  who  flowed  into  the  Christian  Church 
in  the  fourth  and  following  centuries.  On  the  other  hand, 
this  population  accepted  the  Church's  authority. 

How  many  of  these  changes — and  we  have  enumerated 
only  some — deserve  to  be  regarded  as  legitimate  develop- 
ments, or  admissible  adaptations — how  many  as  mistakes 
and  corruptions,  and  what  effect  should  be  ascribed  to  them 
on  either  view — also  how  far  the  essential  genius  of  the 
Christian  religion  with  its  healing  and  renewing  virtue 
operated  through  all, — these  are  questions  not  here  to  be 
further  discussed.  In  contemplating  them  the  student  will 
carry  with  him  the  remembrance  that  our  Lord's  promise  is 
for  ever  taking  fulfilment — "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even 
to  the  end  of  the  world." 


APPENDIX 


A.  LITEEATUEE  OF   CHUECH  HISTOEY 

In  the  immense  literature  of  Church  History,  some  outstand- 
ing works  ought  to  be  known  to  students  at  least  by  name 
and  character,  though  they  may  not  be  in  circumstances  to 
make  much  use  of  them.  Others  should  be  referred  to  by 
those  who  wish  to  study  the  subject  fully.  Here  we  name 
only  such  works  as  include  or  bear  upofi  the  period  covered 
by  this  volume. 

Ancient  Church  Writers  or  Fathers, — generally  taken 
as  applying  to  writers,  especially  Catholic  writers,  of  first  six 
centuries.  See  literature  to  Chap.  III.  p.  50  ;  and  for  earliest, 
or  so-called  Apostolic  Fathers,  n.  1,  2,  p.  51. 

Church  Councils. — Various  collections,  especially  Mansi, 
31  vols,  folio  (1  and  2  cover  period  of  this  vol.),  Flor.,  and 
Ven.,  1759 ;  also  Hefele,  Conciliengeschichte,  Freiburg  in 
Breisgau,  1855  ff. 

Geography.  —  The  chief  requisite  is  a  good  historical 
atlas.  Spruner's,  3rd  ed.,  by  A.  von  Menke,  1871  ff.,  may 
be  named. 

Chronology. — The  great  works  are  J.  Scaliger,  De  emen- 
datione  temporum,  Jena,  1629.  D.  Petavius,  De  doctrina 
temportim,  Antv.,  1703.  L'art  de  verifier  les  dates  (by  a 
Benedictine),  4th  ed.,  by  St.  Alais,  Paris,  1818.  L.  Ideler, 
Lehrhuch  der  Chronologie,  Berlin,  1831.  A  handy  companion 
on  this  subject  will  be  found  in  Book  of  Almanacs,  by  A.  de 
Morgan,  Lond.,  1851. 

LiTUKGic  AND  WORSHIP  have  a  large  special  literature,  but 
they  are  included  in  the  general  subject  of  Antiquities,  which 
comprehends  also  the  constitution,  offices,  administration, 
laws,  and  usages  of  the  Ancient  Christian  Church,  and  the  dis- 
tinctive features  of  its  social  life.    The  classical  English  work  is 

523 


524  APPENDIX 

J.  Bingham,  Antiquities  of  the  Christian  Church,  8  vols.,  Oxon., 
various  editions.  Originally  published  nearly  two  hundred 
years  ago,  this  work  retains  its  value  in  a  remarkable  degree. 
Smith  and  Cheetham,  Dictionary  of  Ecclesiastical  Antiquities, 
Lond.,  1875.  In  Germany,  J.  W.  Angus ti,  Denhwiirdigkeiten, 
12  vols.,  Leipz.,  1816  ff. ;  Guericke,  1859  (both  Lutheran),  and 
Binterim,  17  vols.  (Catholic),  are  usually  named. 

Church  Histories  :  Ancient. — Eusebius,  ten  books  (among 
many  edd.,  Heinichen,  Lips.,  1868-70;  Burton,  Oxon.,  1838), 
comes  down  to  A.D.  314,  Socrates  (a.d.  306-439),  Sozomen  (a.d. 
323-423),  Theodoret  (a.d.  325-429),  Evagrius  (a.d.  431-594). 

Modern  {i.e.  since  Eeformation).  Protestant. — Ecclesiastica 
Historia,  etc.,  Magdeburg,  1559  fif.,  13  vols,  folio,  often  called 
"  Centuriae  Magdeburgenses,"  a  review  of  the  history  down  to 
A.D.  1300,  in  the  interest  of  Protestantism,  and  against  Eome. 
Passing  over  many  large  works,  J.  L.  Mosheim,  Institutiones 
Hist.  Eccl.,  Helmst.,  1755,  inaugurates  less  controversial  and 
more  philosophical  treatment :  J.  S.  Semler,  Hist.  Eccl.  Selecta 
Capita,  Halse,  1773  ff.,  begins  treatment  on  basis  of  rational- 
ism. J.  M.  Schrock,  Christlich.  Kirchengeschichte,  continued 
by  H.  G.  Tzschirner,  45  vols.,  Leipz.,  1768  ff.,  storehouse  of 
results  up  to  end  of  eighteenth  century.  Later  Prot.  writers 
named  below. 

Koman  Catholic. — Cses.  Baronii,  Annates,  Kom.,  1588  jff., 
12  vols,  folio,  devoted  to  twelve  centuries.  Continuation  by 
Eaynaldus,  Laderchius,  and  others ;  best  ed.  by  G.  &  J. 
Mansi,  1738  ff.  This  work  was  the  reply  to  the  Magdeburg 
centuries.  The  author  and  continuators  were  priests  of  the 
oratory  of  S.  PhiHp  Neri.  Natalis  Alexander  (French  name 
Noel),  Hist.  Eccl.  Veteris  et  Novi  Testamenti,  Paris,  1699 : 
author  a  Dominican,  not  ultramontane:  able  statement  of 
RC.  view  in  controverted  questions.  S.  le  Nain  de  Tillemont, 
M4moires  pour  servir  a  VH.  E.  des  six  premiers  sihles,  Paris, 
1693  ff.,  16  vols.  4to,  still  worth  consulting:  takes  up  the 
history  in  connection  with  successive  biographies,  diligent  and 
candid :  author  a  Jansenist.  J.  J.  I.  von  Dollinger,  Geschichte 
d.  Christl.  K.,  Landshut,  1835 :  modern  RC.  position  as  de- 
fended by  a  very  learned  man:  author  repudiated  by  the 
Church  after  the  Vatican  Council. 

Among  modern  Church  Histories  the  following  deserve  the 
attention  of  students.  J.  C.  L.  Gieseler,  Eccl.  History,  trans- 
lated (T.  &  T.  Clark),  Edin.,  1846.  J.  A.  W.  Neander,  General 
Hist,  of  Chr.  Ch.,  translated  (T.  &  T.  Clark),  Edm.,  1847. 
F.  C.  Baur,  Lectures  (partly  posth.),  Tiib.,  1861-63.     Milman, 


APPENDIX  525 

Latin  Christianity,  7  vols.,  Lond.,  1854.  Sohm,  Kirchen- 
geschichte  im  Grundriss,  1885.  W.  Moller,  Lehrhuch  der 
K,  G.,  Freiburg,  1889  ff.  J.  C.  Robertson,  Hist,  of  Ch,  to 
Reformation,  1874. 

History  of  Doctrine. — D.  Petavius,  Dogmata  Theological 
Paris,  1644  ff. ;  various  later  edd. :  author  a  Jesuit  :^  French 
name  Denis  Petau.  Ilagenbach's  Handhooh  of  History  of 
Doctrine  (transl.,  T.  &  T.  Clark,  Edin.)  is  still  a  convenient 
index  to  this  subject.  F.C.  Baur,  Vorlesungen  iL  D.  G.  (posth.), 
3  Bde.  1865  :  Hegelian,  and  pervaded  by  thought  of  develop- 
ment. Harnack,  Lehrhuch  der  D.  G.,  3  vols.,  3rd  ed.  1896  ff. 
Loofs,  Leitfaden  z.  Studium  d.  D.  G.,  Halle,  1893. 

Biography,  besides  Tillemont,  Smith  and  Wace's  Diction- 
ary of  Ecclesiastical  Biography,  Lond.,  4  vols.  See  also  arti- 
cles in  Herzog  and  Plitt,  Real-EncycL,  which  is  useful  also  for 
Antiquities,  Liturgic,  etc.  Corresponding  R.C.  work  is  Wetzer 
and  Welte,  Kir chen- Lexicon,  1847  ff.  These  works  contain 
information  also  on  writings  and  editions  of  Fathers.  Special 
works  on  Patristic  are  E.  Dupin,  Nouv.  Bihliotheque,  Paris, 
1686 ;  and  R.  Ceillier,  Histoire  generate  des  Auteurs,  etc., 
last  ed.  Par.  1860.  For  Latin  writeis  the  supplementary 
volumes  (Christian  Section,  1-3)  of  J.  C.  F.  Bahr,  Gesch.  d. 
Romisch.  Lit,,  Karlsruhe,  1836  ff.,  will  be  found  convenient. 


B.  SUPPLEMENTARY  NOTES  TO  CHAPTERS 

Chapter  I.  Add  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  Roman 
Empire,  notes  by  J.  B.  Bury,  7  vols.,  Lond.,  1897.  Aube, 
Histoire  des  persecutions  d^Eglise^  etc.,  Paris,  1875.  Keim, 
Romu.  Christenthu?n,  ISSl.  JJhWiorn,  Der  Itampfd.  Chris- 
tenthums  mit  d.  Heidenthum,  1886.  See  also  A.  Ilarnack  in 
Real-Encycl,  viii.  772.  Hardy,  Christianity  and  the  Roman 
Government,  Lond.,  1894.  Neumann,  Der  Romische  Staat  u. 
d.  allgemeine  Kirche,  Leipz.,  1890.  Merivale,  History  of 
Rom.  Emperors,  8  vols.,  Lond.,  1865.  E.  Renan,  Hist,  des 
Origines  du  Christianisme,  Paris,  1867  ff. 

On  the  Jews. — Milman,  History  of  the  Jews,  3  vols., 
Lond.,  1829.  Gfrorer,  Jahrhundert  des  Heils,  2  Bde.  1838. 
E.  Schiirer,  Geschichte  des  Judischen  Volks,  2nd  ed.,  Leipz., 
1886  fe.  (very  full  reff.  to  literature). 

Chapter  II.  The  Early  Churches. — Works  on  the  con- 
stitution of  the  early  churches  are  cited  p.  32,  n.  1.    Among 


526  APPENDIX 

older  works  which  deserve  still  to  be  kept  in  view  are  E. 
Hooker,  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  ed.  by  Keble,  Oxf.,  1836.  D. 
Petavius,  De  Ecclesiastica  Hierarchia,  lib.  v.  H.  Hammond, 
Dissertationes,  iv.,  Lond.,  1651.  D.  Blondel,  Apologia  pro 
sententia  Hieronym.,  Amst.,  1646.  Add  to  later  works  E. 
Eothe,  Anfdnge  d.  Christl.  Kirche,  Witt.,  1837.  Bishop  Kaye, 
External  Disc,  and  Govt,  of  Church  of  Christ,  Lond.,  1856. 
Hatch,  Organisation  of  early  Christ.  Churches,  Lond.,  1881 ; 
and  Groivth  of  Christ.  Institutions,  Lond.,  1887. 

As  to  the  methods  of  early  church  life,  besides  details 
gathered  from  incidental  notices  in  the  Fathers,  we  have  the 
various  early  collections  of  Church  Laws — the  history  of 
which  is  a  complicated  subject.  (See  A.  Harnack  in  T.  u.  U. 
ii.,  parts  1,  2,  5,  1886.)  The  collection  best  known  is  the 
Apostolical  Constitutions  (in  Cotelerius,  Patres  Apostolici,  see 
n.  1,  p.  51:  handy  modern  editions  by  Ueltzen,  Eost.,1853,  and 
Lagarde,  Lips.,  1862).  Of  the  eight  books,  the  composition 
of  the  first  six  is  referred  to  the  end  of  the  third  century  or 
beginning  of  fourth ;  but  the  text  as  it  stands  contains  later 
interpolations  as  well  as  material  from  earlier  collections: 
books  7  and  8  are  ascribed  to  different  periods  in  the  fourth 
century.  The  Apostolic  Canons  (85)  belong  to  the  fifth  and 
sixth  centuries:  they  are  usually  printed  at  the  end  of  the 
Ap.  Const.  On  Apostles'  Creed,  see  H.  B.  Swete,  2nd  ed., 
Camb.,  1894 

Discipline. — Details  on  this  subject  are  best  studied  with 
the  aid  of  works  on  Christian  Antiquities,  supra. 

Maktyrdom. — See  works  cited  above  in  connection  with 
Chap.  L 

Chapter  TIT.  The  Church's  Life.  Good  specimens  of 
literature  in  H.  M.  Gwatkin,  Selections  from  early  Writers^ 
Lond.,  1893. 

Chapter  IV.  Beliefs  and  Sacraments. 

P.  68.  On  earliest  asceticism,  see  A.  Harnack  in  notes 
to  his  edition  of  Teaching  of  Apostles,  Berlin,  1886.  Older, 
S.  Deyling,  Ohservationes  Sacrce,  iii.,  De  ascetis  Veterum. 

Pp.  70,  71.  Eeferences  on  the  doctrine  concerning  Christ 
will  be  found  under  Chap.  XL 

Chapter  V.  Apologists. — Students  are  specially  referred 
to  A.  Harnack,  Dogmengeschichte  (trans.  Lond.,  1875),  2nd 
book,  4th  chapter.     Loofs,  Leitfaden  z.  D.  G.  §  18,  and  especi- 


APPENDIX  527 

ally  to  de  Pressensc?,  Histoire  dcs  trois  premiers  sikles,  etc., 
Par,  1858-64. 

Chapter  VI.  Gnosticism. 

P.  104,  note  2.     See  Swete,  Gospel  of  S.  Peter,  Lond.,  1893. 

Chapter  VIII.  Action  of  Government. — See  also  litera- 
ture cited  under  Chap.  I.  supra. 

Chapter  XL  Christ  and  God. — On  this  great  subject 
of  discussion,  see  G.  Bull,  De/ensio  Fidei  Niccence,  Oxon., 
1685 :  works  by  Nelson,  vol.  v.  ff.  F.  C.  Baur,  Die  Christlicke 
Lehre  v.  d.  Dreieinigkeit,  etc..  Tub.,  1841-43.  G.  A.  Meier,  Die 
Lehre  v.  d.  Trinitdt,  Hamb.,  1844.  Dorner,  Entwickelungs- 
geschichte  der  Lehre  v.  d.  Person  Christi,  Stuttgart,  1845  (transL, 
T.  &  T.  Clark,  Edin.),  and  all  the  general  histories  of  doctrine. 

Chapter  XII.  Christian  Life. — See  reff.  on  earlier  asceti- 
cism under  Chap.  IV.  Also  J.  A.  W.  Neander,  Denhumrdigkeiten, 
U.S.W.,  vol.  i.  3rd  ed.,  Berlin,  1845.  N.  Mosler,  Zur  Geschichte 
des  Coslihats,  Held.,  1878.  A.  Harnack,  Das  Monchthum,  u.s.w., 
3rd  ed.  1886.  How  the  ascetic  idea  commended  itself  to 
Christians  is  best  seen  in  Clem.  Alex.  Pcedagogus,  and  some 
tracts  of  Tertullian ;  also,  later,  in  canons  of  councils. 

Chapter  XI 1 1.  Worship. — See  Bingham,  Antiquities,  and 
Smith  and  Cheetham,  Dictionary  of  Christian  Antiquities.  See 
also  second  book  of  Apostolic  Constitutions. 

P.  232.  The  recourse  to  O.T.  to  supply  precedents  and 
authorities  for  ecclesiastical  arrangement  and  ritual  embellish- 
ment is  illustrated  in  first  six  books  of  Apostolical  Constitu- 
tions, and  frequently  in  the  works  of  Origen. 

Chapter  XIV.  Clergy. — See  reff.  under  Chap.  II.  supra. 
P.    245.     Clergy   in   Eome,   Eus.   H.   E.  vi.  43.     Optat. 
Milev.  De  Schismate,  etc.,  ii.  4. 

Chapter  XVI.  Manicheism. — Add  F.  C.  Baur,  Das  Mani- 
chdische  Eeligionssystem,  Tlib.,  1831.  Art.  sub  tit.  in  Peal- 
Encycl.  vol.  ix.  The  sources  are  Acta  disputationis  Archelai  et 
Manetis  (referred  to  4th  cent.)  in  Routh,  Reliquice  Sacrce,  and  in 
Migne,  Patr.  Gr.  x.    Tit.  Bostren,  'irphg  Uavi-xaiovg,  Lagarde,  1859. 

Alexander    of    Nicopolis,    Aoyog    'jrphg    ruz    Ma)^/^aluv    do^ag,  in 

Gallandi,  iv.     Fresh  light  has  been  derived    from  Arabic 


528  APPENDIX 

sources  (see  in  Fliigel  and  art.  in  B.  E.).  Notices  in  Syriac 
works  of  Ephraem  S.  (4th  cent.)  and  in  Armenian  of  Esnik 
(5th  cent.). 

Chapter  XV IL  Church  in  Christian  Empire. — Tzschirner, 
Fall  des  Heidenthums,  Leipz.,  1829.  A.  Beugnot,  Histoire  de 
la  destructiov-  du  Faganisme  en  Occident,  Paris,  1835.  S.  T. 
Eiidiger,  De  statu  paganorum  suh.  imp.  Christ.,  Vratisl.,  1825. 
J.  V.  A.  de  Broglie,  L'Eglise  et  V Empire  Romain  an  IV^ 
Siecle,  3rd  ed.,  Paris,  1869.  V.  Schulze,  Geschichte  des  Unter- 
gangs  des  griech.  rom.  Heidenthums,  Jena,  1887.  For  course 
of  legislation,  see  Codex  Theodos.,  by  Haeneck,  6  vols.,  Bonn, 
1842.     Codex  Justinian,  by  Krliger,  BeroL,  1877. 

P.  274.  On  unworthy  motives  of  many  converts,  Euseb. 
Vita  Constantin.  iv.  54. 

P.  279  ff.  On  Julian,  add  to  the  reff.  given,  G.  H. 
Kendall,  The  Emperor  Julian,  Lond.,  1879,  and  H.  A.  Naville, 
Jidien  VApostat,  Neuch.,  1877. 

Literary  representatives  of  the  non-Christian  thinkers  and 
scholars  were  Jamblichus  (d.  333),  Libanius  (d.  395),  Himerius 
(d.  390),  Themistius  (d.  390),  Hypatia  (d.  416),  Proclus  (d. 
485).  The  historian  Ammianus  Marcellinus  ranks  on  the 
same  side,  and  the  poet  Claudius  Claudianus. 

Chapter  XVIII.  Monasticism. — The  earliest  work  com- 
monly cited  is  R  Hospinian,  De  monachis  h.  e.  de  origine  et 
progressu  monachatus,  2nd  ed.,  Tiguri,  1609.  Add  also,  Hols- 
tenius,  Cod.  Begularum,  ed.  Martene,  1690.  J.  Mabillon,  De 
monachis  in  occidente  ante  Benedictum  (in  Acta  Sanct.y  Ord. 
Bened.  vol.  i.).  H.  Weingarten,  Ursprung  des  Monchthums, 
Gotha,  1877. 

Among  early  sources  add  Eufinus,  Ristoria  Monachorum, 
Ant  v.,  1615.  Palladius,  Historia  Lausiaca  (Migne,  Gr.  34). 
Hilarii  Arelat.,  Vita  Honorati,  Caesarii  Arelat.,  Ad  Monachos, 
Migne,  67. 

Chapter  XIX.  Clergy. 

P.  311.  Metropolitans  and  Patriarchs.  See  R  Loening, 
Geschichte  des  deutschen  Kirchenrechts,  i.  424  ff. 

Chapter  XX.  Council  of  Nicsea.  See  J.  A.  Mohler, 
AthanasiuSy  Mainz,  1827-28.  Harnack,  Dogmengesch.^  part  ii. 
chap.  7. 

Sources:  Eus.    Vita   Const.  Magni,    Socrates,  Hist.  Eccl. 


APPENDIX  529 

Sozomen,  H.  E.     Theodoret,  H.  Eccl.    Philostorgius,  fragments 
in  Photius,  cod.  40. 

Chapter  XXI.  Arian  Controversy,  post-Nicene.  Sources : 
Socrates,  Sozomen,  Theodoret,  Philostorgius,  Epiphanius,  Hcer. 
69 ;  and  controvl.  works  of  Athanasius,  Hilary,  13asil  and  the 
two  Gregories,  with  their  Epistles.  Councils  in  Mansi,  ii., 
iii. ;  Fuchs,  Bihliothek  der  Kirchenversammlungen,  Leipz.,  1780, 
vols,  i.,  iii. ;  Hahn,  Bihlioth.  d.  Syrribolik  ;  C.  J.  Hefele,  Concilien- 
geschichte,  Freiburg,  1855  ff.,  vol.  i. 

Chapter  XXII.  Minor  Controversies. 

P.  363.  Apollinarian  pseudonymous  writings: — the  con- 
fession ascribed  to  Athanasius  was  part  of  a  letter  by  Apolli- 
narius  to  the  Emperor  Jovian.  A  number  of  the  followers  of 
Apollinarius  returned  to  the  great  Church  and  strengthened 
the  Monophysite  section. 

P.  370.  Origen's  errors.  Modern  discussion  of  these 
points  may  be  found  in  Origeniana  by  Huet  (b.  of  Avranches) 
in  vol.  iv.  of  De  la  Kue's  edition  of  Origen's  works ;  in  Rede- 
penning's  Life  of  Origen ;  in  Life,  by  Thomasius ;  and  in  Wetzer 
and  Welte,  Kirchenlexicon  (R.  C),  vol.  vii.  The  works  of 
Rufiuus  and  Jerome  on  the  subject  are  Eufinus,  Frcef.  ad 
Oingen.  'n-spi  dp^uiv  and  Apologia  in  Hieron. ;  Hieronymus, 
Apologia  adv.  Rufinum,  libri  iii,  with  Epp.  51-84,  87—100 ; 
also  Epiphan.  Hcer.  64. 

P.  371.  Priscillian.  P.  ascribed  some  kind  of  inspiration 
to  non-canonical  writings,  now  lost,  apparently  Gnostic  or 
semi-Gnostic.  This  in  itself  would  create  distrust  in  the 
minds  of  men  like  Ambrose  and  Damasus. 

Chapter  XXIII.  Person  of  Christ. 

On  this  subject.it  may  be  well  to  read  the  relative  sections 
in  Cunningham's  Historical  Theology  and  in  Dorner's  History 
of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ.  The  latter  shares  in  a 
common  Lutheran  tendency  to  criticise  and  depreciate  the 
decision  of  Chalcedon;  also  Petavius,  Dogmata  Theologica. 
Important  as  early  sources  are  the  histories  of  Socrates, 
Sozomen,  and  Theodoret,  the  latter  especially,  see  n.  1,  p.  382, 
— along  with  Cyril's  Tracts  and  the  dogmatic  Epistle  of  Leo. 
The  latter  should  not  be  accepted  by  the  student  at  its 
traditional  value  without  reconsideration. 

Chapter  XXIV.  Donatism. 
34 


530  APPENDIX 

The  importance  of  Donatism  lies  in  the  development  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  which  it  became  the  occasion. 
This  topic  comes  up  in  all  studies  of  Augustine,  e.g.  Harnack, 
D.  G.  iii.  pp.  70  and  127.  Eeuter,  Augustinische  Studien, 
pp.  4  ff.  and  231  ff.     A.  Dorner,  Augustinus,  p.  232. 

In  addition  to  the  works  cited  at  the  head  of  the  chapter 
may  be  named  Augustin.  0pp.  vol.  ix.  M.  Leydecker,  Historia 
Ecclesice  Africanm,  Ultraj.,  1690.  H.  Noris,  Historia  Dona- 
tistarum,  edited  by  the  Ballerini,  Verona,  1729-32.  Binde- 
mann,  Der  heil.  Augustinus,  ii.,  Leipz.,  1829. 

Chapter  XXV. 

P.  422.  Eusebius.  Stein,  EuseUus,  Wiirzb.,  1859.  See 
also  in  Lightfoot's  reply  to  Supernatural  Religion,  and  art.  in 
Did.  of  Eccl.  Biography.  A  German  translation  of  the  Syriac 
version  has  appeared  in  the  Berlin  edition  of  Greek  Fathers. 

P.  423.  Athanasius.  See  Bohringer,  Kirche  Christi,  2nd 
ed.,  vol.  vi.  1874.  Mohler,  Athanas.  d.  Grosse,  1827.  J. 
Fialon,  S.  Athanase,  1877.  Opera,  Montfaucon,  1693.  Migne, 
Gr.  25-28.  Festal  Letters,  preserved  in  Syriac,  Cureton,  Lond., 
1848. 

P.  426.  Basil,  born  in  or  near  a.d.  330.  Opera,  Garnier, 
Paris,  1721 ;  Migne,  29-32 ;  see  Vita  prefixed,  and  article  in 
Beal-Encycl.  ii. 

P.  428.  Gregory  of  Nyssa.  Of  the  three  Cappadocians 
he  adhered  most  to  Origen ;  but  yet,  like  the  others,  fully 
adopted  the  Athanasian  position.  Besides  the  works  men- 
tioned in  the  text,  his  De  hominis  opificio  and  Apolog.  de 
hexaem.  may  be  specially  noted.  Opera,  Fronto  le  Due, 
Paris,  1615,  and  Migne,  44-48.  A  new  edition  is  very  desir- 
able.    Article  by  W.  Moller  in  Beal-Encycl.  vol.  v. 

P.  430.  Hilary  of  Poictiers.  He  wrote  also  three  books 
against  the  Emperor  Constantius,  and  a  work  against  Auxen- 
tius  of  Milan.  He  is  regarded  as  the  father  of  Latin  Hymnody, 
— stirred  up,  it  is  said,  by  previous  efforts  of  the  Arians, — and 
he  communicated  the  impulse  to  Ambrose.  0pp.  (Bened.  ed.), 
1693;  Migne,  L.  9,  10.  Life,  Eeinkens,  Schaffh.,  1864.  On 
his  Theology,  see  Dorner,  Entiuichelungsgesch.  d,  Lehre  v.  d. 
P.  Christi,  i.  1037. 

P.  434.  Ambrose,  0pp.  (Bened.),  Paris,  1686,  and  Venet., 
1781 ;  new  edition,  MedioL,  1875  ;  Migne,  L.  14-17  ;  Life  by 
Benedictine  Edd. ;  also  Bohringer,  vol.  x. 

Chapter  XXVI.  Festivals,  etc.     See  Bingham,  books  xiil 


APPENDIX  531 

and  xiv.,  and  Diet,  of  Christian  Antiquities ;  C.  E.  Hammond, 
Ancient  Liturgy  of  Antioch,  Oxf.,  1879  ;  L.  A.  Muratori, 
Liturgia  Eomana  Vetus,  Neap.,  1776.  Also  S.  Silvise  Aqui- 
tanae,  Peregrinatio  ad  loca  sanxita,  Gamurrine,  2nd  ed.,  Eom., 
1888. 

P.  444.  Eucharistic  doctrine;  see  in  Jahrh.  d.  deutschen 
Theologie,  1864-68,  articles  by  Steitz,  Die  Abendmahlslehre  d. 
griechischen  Kirche,  u.s.w. 

Chapter  XXVIII.  Augustine. 

P.  467.  Augustine's  relations  to  Manicheism  (cf.  Chap. 
XVL),  to  Donatism  (Chap.  XXIV.),  to  Pelagianism  (Chap. 
XXIX.),  and  to  Semi-Pelagianism  (Chap.  XXX.),  are  referred 
to  in  those  chapters.  His  theory  of  the  Catholic  Church 
receives  important  exposition  in  works  besides  those  against 
Donatism ;  see  especially  the  De  Civitate  Dei.  Other  theologi- 
cal topics,  which  claim  attention  in  connection  with  Augustine, 
are  his  theory  of  sacramental  grace,  his  conception  of  the  signi- 
ficance of  Christ  in  redemption  (alleged,  e.g.,  by  Harnack  and 
Loofs  to  be  one-sided,  and  so  defective),  his  free  revision  of 
earlier  argument  in  connection  with  the  Trinity,  and  his  non- 
appreciation  of  the  Pauline  teaching  on  justification,  while  he 
lays  so  much  stress  on  the  same  apostle's  doctrine  of  grace. 
Hints  and  conjectures  of  this  Father,  which  prepared  the 
way  for  later  developments,  will  be  referred  to  when  these 
are  taken  up. 


INDEX 


AoACius  of  Csesarea,  348. 

Acacius  of  Constantinople,  347. 

Acta  facientes,  143. 

Aedesius,  288. 

Aerius,  370. 

Aetius,  346,  348. 

Africa,    school   of,    184  f.;   Tertullian, 

184-9  ;  Cyprian,  189-97. 
Agape,  30,  75-6,  229. 
Agrippinus,  257. 
Alaric,  270,  271. 

Alexander  of  Alexandria,  326,  330,  341. 
Alexander  of  Jerusalem,  143. 
Alexandria,  school  of,  2nd  P.,  161  f.  ; 

Pantanus    and     Clement,     161-8; 

Origen,    168-79;    3rd    P.,     374-5, 

379-80. 
Allegorical  Interpretation  of  O.T.,  107, 

109,  158,  510  ;  extended  to  N.T.  by 

Origen,  158,  n.  2,  170. 
Alogi,  211-2. 
Ambrose,  and  Monasticism,  296  ;  and 

Priscillian,  372  ;  and  prayer  to  the 

saints,  452  ;  and  inability,  475  ;  life 

and  works,  434-6,  530. 
Ammonius  Saccas,  147. 
Anastasius,   presb.    of   Antioch,    377, 

378. 
Anatolius    of    Constantinople,     396, 

399,  iL 
Andreas  of  Samosata,  382,  n.  1. 
Anicetus,  83,  236. 
Anomoeans,  340,  346,  350,  352. 
Antioch,  s.  of  (Paul  of  S.),  214-5. 
Antioch,  c.  at  (341  a.d.),  343-4  ;  (343 

A.D.),  844-6. 
Antioch,  school  of,  374-6,  473,  n.  2. 
Antoninus  Pius,  17. 
Antony,  293. 
Apelles,  119,  n.  2. 
Apollinarins,  157,  358  f. 
Apollinarius  of  Hierapolis,  ISO,  n.  1. 
Apollonius  of  Hierapolis,  62, 180,  n.  1. 


Apollonius  of  Tyana,  146,  155,  283. 

"Apostles'  "  Creed,  59,  74. 

Apostles  in  the  early  Church,  32-4. 

Apostolici,  304. 

Apuleiua,  7. 

Arcadius,  270. 

Arianism,  205,  n.  2,  324,  327,  n.  3. 

Arianism,  Gothic,  352-3. 

Ariniinum,  c.  at  (359  A.D.),  348. 

Aristides,  17,  60-1,  84. 

Arius,  his  opinions,  324-5,  326-8,  860  ; 

at  Nicsea,    330-1 ;    banished,    333 ; 

returns,   341  ;    dies,  342 ;    life  and 

character,  325,  326. 
Aries,   s.    of,  and   heretical   baptism, 

260. 
Amobius,  84,  89,  157. 
Arnobius  the  younger,  488,  n. 
Art,  Christian,  2nd  P.,  222-3  ;  3rd  P., 

454. 
Artemon,  212. 
Asceticism,  1st  P.,  68  ;  2nd  P.,  223-5  ; 

3rd  P.,  291  f. 
Asia  Minor,  school  of,  180  f. ;  Irenaeus, 

180-4;  Hippolytus,  180,  184. 
Athanasius,  archdeacon  at  Alexandria, 

307  ;  at  Nicaea,  330  ;  bishop,  341  ; 

in  the  post-Nicene  debate,    341-2, 

343,  344,  345,  346,  349,  350,  354-5  ; 

nature  of  the  charges  against  him, 

821  ;   attitude  to  Origen,  364 ;  life 

and  works,  423-6,  530. 
Athenagoras,  61,  84,  205. 
Attila,  270,  271,  506. 
Audiarii,  304. 
Audius,  304. 
Augustine,  and  heretical  baptism,  257, 

n.    3  ;  and   Manicheism,    264,   267, 

461-2,  466;  and  Monasticism,  295-6, 

298,    301  ;  and  relics,  302-3,   436  ; 

and    training    of  the  clergy,    816, 

319  ;  and  the  Donatists,  412  f.  ;  and 

yeneratioQ  of  the  saints,  452 ;  and 


i88 


634 


INDEX 


discipline,  458  ;  andNeo-Plalonism, 
462,  464 ;  and  Pelagianism,  471, 
475-6,  479-82  ;  and  Semi-Pelagian- 
ism,  483-4.  His  church  theory, 
415-9.  As  preacher,  451.  Charac- 
ter of  his  thinking,  463-4,  466-7. 
Life,  280,  n.  2,  316,  460-3.  Works, 
271,  n.  2,  464-5,  467,  473,  n.  1, 
475,  n.  2,  484,  531. 

Aurelian,  143,  144. 

Aurelius,  Marcus,  7,  n.  2,  17,  48. 

Auxentius  of  Milan,  434. 

Avitus  of  Vienne,  489. 

Axum,  kingdom  of,  288. 

Babylas  of  Antioch,  142,  143. 

Baptism,  1st  P.,  31,  75  ;  2nd  P.,  233-5, 
237,  n.  2  ;  3rd  P.,  290,  300,  446-9. 
Review,  516-7. 

Baptism,  heretical,  255  f.  ;  Augustine 
on,  415. 

Baptismal  confession,  73,  159,  448, 
511. 

Bar  Cochba,  19. 

Bardesanes  of  Edessa,  116,  n.,  119, 
n.  2. 

Barnabas^  Epistle  of,  22,  n.,  55. 

Basil  of  Ancyra,  339,  348. 

Basil  of  Caesarea,  Neo-Platonic  influ- 
ence in,  156;  post-Mcene  debate, 
350,  354  ;  as  preacher,  451  ;  life  and 
works,  295,  301,  426-8,  530. 

Basilides,  113-6. 

Beron,  170,  n.  1,  217. 

Beryllus  of  Bostra,  170,  n.  1,  217. 

Bishops,  1st  P.,  35-40  ;  Hatch  and 
Harnack  on,  40-2 ;  and  discipline, 
43.  2nd  P.,  241-5 ;  election  of,  245- 
7.  3rd  P.,  314,  319  ;  election  of, 
308-9  ;  celibacy  of,  320.  Growth  of 
their  power,  512-3. 
Bishops,  country,  245,  307. 
Bonosus,  453. 

C^CILIANUS,  405-6. 

Csesarius  of  Aries,  451,  489. 

Callistus  of  Kome,  215,  216,  217,  n.  1, 

251   257. 
Canon  of  N.T.,  109-10,  158,  509-10. 
Caracalla,  141. 
Carpocrates,  111. 
Cassian,    296,     298,     486,    488  ;    his 

Semi  -  Pelagian  views,    488,   490-3, 

503. 
Celibacy  of  the  clergy,  2nd  P..  223-4  : 

3rd  P.,  319-20. 
Celsus,  8,  n.  1,  157. 
Cerinthus,  111. 


Chalcedon,  c.  at,  396-401. 
Character,  doct.  of,  414,  449. 
Chorepiscopoi,  245,  307. 
Chrysaphius,  393,  395. 
Chrysostom,   on   State  aid,    278  ;    on 
Lord's  Supper,  444-5  ;  as  preacher, 
451  ;  life,  295,  301,  321,  368-9,  375, 
494-6  ;  writings,  496. 
Church,  form  of,  in  2nd  P.,  239-40. 
Church,  idea  of  the,  1st  P.,  27-9,  71-2 ; 
2nd    P.,    242-3,    255-6  ;    Cyprian, 
193-4,  256-8.     3rd  P.,  409  ;  Augus- 
tine, 415-9.     Review,  514-5. 
Circumcelliones,   407,    411,   412,  420, 

n.  2. 
Clemens,  T.  Flavins,  15. 
Clement    of   Alexandria,     and    N.T. 
canon,  158,  n.  2  ;  Logos  doct.,  164, 
166,  167,  205  ;  on  the  Christian  life, 
221-2  ;  life  and  teaching,  100,  n., 
161-8. 
Clement  of  Rome,  52. 
Clement,  \st  Ep.  of,  16,  52-3,  202. 
Clement,  2nd  Ep.  of,  40,  53. 
Clementine  writings,  21-2. 
Clergy,  celibacy  of,  2nd  P.,  223-4  ;  3rd 

P.,  319-20. 
Clejgy,  priesthood  of,  growth  of  idea, 

232. 
Clergy,  and  secular  callings,  314,  319. 
Clergy,  training  of,  3rd  P.,  316-8. 
Ccelestinus  of  Rome,  379,  381. 
Coelestius,  471,  472. 
Collegia  tenuiorum,  144. 
Commodian,  157. 
Commodus,  4,  18,  141. 
Communicatio  idiomatum,  383,  n.  2. 
Communion.     See  Lord's  Supper. 
Constans,  emp.,  268;  and  post-Nicene 

debate,  342-3,  344-5. 
Constantine,     emp.,    268 ;     edict    of 
Milan,  5,  145  ;  religious  policy,  276, 
277-8  ;    and    the    Donatists,    406 ; 
and  Nicsea,    329,    337 ;    and    post- 
Nicene  debate,  340-2. 
Constantine  ii.,  268,  342-3. 
Constantinople,  c.  at  (381  a.d.),  352, 

355-7,  359. 
Constantius,  emp.,  268,  269  ;  religious 
policy,  276,  278 ;  and  Julian,  282  ; 
and    post-Nicene    debate,     343-8 ; 
and  Hilary,  431. 
Constantius  Chlorus,  145. 
Cornelius  of  Rome,  253-4,  259. 
Creed,    early    forms    of,    73-4,    511  ; 
"Apostles',"  59,  74;  Nicene,   322, 
later  form,  356  ;  Chalcedon,  398-9. 
Cyprian,   and    tlie    **  lapsed,"  191-2, 


INDEX 


635 


251-2  ;  and  Tieretic.il  haptisin,  256- 
61,  417  ;  on  the  unity  of  the  Church, 
192-4,  258 ;  and  Novatian,  254  ; 
life,  189-91  ;  martyrdom,  195-7. 

Cyi'il  of  Alexandria,  Ids  contra  Juli- 
anujti,  284  ;  and  Nestorian  contro- 
versy, 379,  380-91,  400,  403;  life 
and  writings,  496-7. 

Cyril  of  Ephesus,  387. 

Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  356-7,  366. 

Cyrillus  of  Antioch,  325. 

DAMASFSof  Rome,  372,  499,  500. 

Deaconesses,  248. 

Deacons,   1st  P.,  31,   35,  38  ;    Hatch 

and    Harnack  on,    40-2 ;    2nd   P., 

241,  247  ;  3rd  P.,  306-7,  311,  314, 

319 
Dead,  Christian  (2nd  P.\  238. 
Dead,  prayers  for,  239,  445. 
Death,   Christian  view   of  (2nd    P.), 

238-9. 
Decius,  142. 
Dianius    of   Caesarea    in    Cappadocia, 

344,  428. 
Didache,   58-9.      On  worship  in  the 

early  Church,  30,  76  ;  on  apostles, 

Erophets,     and     teachers,    33 ;    on 
ishops  and  deacons,  41. 
Didyraus  of  Alexandria,  364. 
Dio  Chrysostom,  7. 
Diocletian,  4-5,  143,  145,  267. 
Diodorus,  375. 

DiognetiLS,  Epistle  to,  55,  84,  90,  93. 
Dionysius  of   Alexandria,    179,    217, 

260. 
Dionysius  of  Coiinth,  62,  250. 
Dionysius  of  Rome,  217,  220,  n. 
Dioscurus  of  Alexandria,  395,  397. 
Disciplina  arcani,  230. 
Discipline,  42-4,  249  f.,  455  f.,  520. 
Docetism,  95,  200. 
Domitian,  15. 
Domitilla,  Flavia,  15-6. 
Domnus  of  Antioch,  393,  396. 
Donatism,  405  f.,  530. 
Donatus,  407. 

Easter,  celebration  of,  2nd  P.,  237  ; 

3rd  P.,  437-9. 
Easter,  controversy  as  to  date,  81-3, 

236. 
Ebionites,  21,  199,  n. 
Edessa,  school  of,  392. 
Elkesaites,  21. 
Ephesus,  c.  at  (431  a.d.),  386-7,  473  ; 

(449  A.D.)  395-6. 
Epictetus,  5,  n.,  6,  146. 


E[)iphanea,  111. 

Epiphaiiius,  295,  356-7,  365-7. 

Epiphany,  2nd  P.,  237  ;  3rd  P.,  439- 

40. 
Episcopate.     See  Bishops. 
Eucharist.     See  Lord's  Supper. 
Eucharistic  prayers.   See  Lord's  Supper. 
Euchites,  304. 
Eudoxia,  495,  496. 
Eudoxius,  346,  348. 
Eugenius,  270. 
Eugenins  of  Csesarea,  472. 
Eunomius,  346,  348. 
Eusebius  of  Caesarea,  on  apostles  in  the 

early  Church,  34  ;  and  Nicaea,  330, 

331,  333  ;  post-Nicene  debate,  341  ; 

life  and  works,  157,  179,  422-3,  530. 
Eusebius  of  Dorjlseum,  394,  395. 
Eusebius   of  Nicomedia,   and  Nicaa, 

326,  330,  333 ;  post-Nicene  debate, 

340,  341,  342  ;  death,  345,  423. 
Eusebius  of  Rome,  254. 
Eusebius  of  Vercelli,  319. 
Eustachians,  304. 

Eustathius  of  Antioch,  321,  330,  331, 

341,  342. 

Eustathius  of  Sebaste,  304,  370. 
Eutyches,  393-5. 
Evagrius  of  Antioch,  499. 
Exarchs,  312. 
Exoukontians,  346. 

Fabian  of  Rome,  143,  253. 
Fabius  of  Antioch,  254. 
Faustus  of  Reii,  488,  490-3. 
Felicissimus,  schism  of,  253,  n.  2. 
Felicitas  {and  Ferpetua),  Acts  of,  130. 
Felix  of  Aptunga,  405. 
Firmilian  of  Caesarea,  260. 
Firmus,  270. 
Flavia  Domitilla,  15-6. 
Flavian  of  Antioch,  494. 
Flavian  of  Constantinople,  393-6. 
Flavins  Clemens,  T.,  15. 
Florentius,  394. 
Fortunatus,  253,  n.  2. 
Frumentius,  288. 
Fulgentius  of  Ruspe,  489. 

Gaius,  157. 
Galerius,  5,  145. 
Gallienus,  4,  143,  144. 
Gallus,  282. 

Gennadius  of  Marseilles,  488,  n. 
Genseric,  271,  n.  1,  286,  506. 
Gildo,  270,  412. 

Gnosticism,    95  f.      Elements   of   the 
scheme,  96-8 ;   view  of  the  world, 


536 


INDEX 


99-102  ;  the  Demiurge,  103-4 ;  the 
Person  of  Christ,  104-5;  Redemption, 
105-6  ;  the  three  classes  of  men  and 
their  destiny,  106-7 ;  Judaism  and 
the  O.T.,  107-9 ;  the  N.T.  canon, 
109-10;  Ethics,  110-1.  How  the 
scheme  came  to  be,  117-9. 

Gnostic  schools,  Cerinthus,  Carpocrates, 
and  Epiphanes,  111 ;  Ophites,  111- 
2 ;  Satuminus,  112-3 ;  Basilides, 
113-6 ;  Valentinus,  116. 

Gordians,  the  two,  141. 

Goths,  285-6,  352-3. 

Gratian,  269,  277,  372,  436. 

Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  and  post-Mcene 
debate,  350,  354-5 ;  as  preacher, 
451 ;  life  and  works,  295,  301,  346, 
n.,  429-30. 

Gregory  of  Nyssa,  and  post-Nicene 
debate,  350,  354-5 ;  as  preacher, 
451 ;  life  and  works,  301,  428-9,  530. 

Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  179,  271,  n.  3. 

Hadrian,  16,  19. 

Hegesippus,  60. 

Heliogabalus,  141. 

Helvidius,  453. 

Heracleon,  119,  n.  2. 

Heraclius,  schism  of,  254. 

Heretical  Baptism.     See  Baptism. 

HermaSy  Shepherd  of,  53-4.  On  pro- 
phets, 33;  on  forgiveness  of  sin,  80-1 ; 
Logos  doct.,  202,  213,  n.  ;  on  second 
repentance,  250. 

Hermias,  60,  62,  n.,  84,  157. 

Heterousiastians,  346. 

Hierakas,  224,  n.  1. 

Hierocles,  157. 

Hilary  of  Aries,  506. 

Hilary  of  Poictiers,  and  post-Nicene 
debate,  346,  348 ;  life  and  works, 
430-2,  530. 

Hippolytus,  Logos  doct.,  205,  215, 
219 ;  and  penitents,  251  ;  and 
heretical  baptism,  257 ;  life  and 
works,  141,  180,  184. 

Homoiians,  339-40,  350,  351. 

Homoiousians,  339,  348-50. 

Homoousians,  348. 

Honorius,  270,  419. 

Hosius,  329,  330,  342,  347. 

Hunerich,  286. 

Hypatia,  497,  502,  603. 

Ibas,  892,  393,  400. 

Ignatius,  on  the  Person  of  Christ,  202  ; 

on  the  eucharist,  76,  77,  78,  n.,  79, 

n.  1 ;  martyrdom.  16. 


Ignatius,  Epistles  of,  56-7. 

Innocent  i.,  313,  472,  496. 

Irenseus,  and  N.T.  canon,  158,  n.  2; 
on  the  eucharist,  183  ;  on  the  O.T., 
183-4;  Logos  doct.,  206-7;  and 
Easter  controversy,  236 ;  life  and 
teaching,  129,  180-4. 

Irenaeus,  m.  of  Tyre,  393. 

Isidore  of  Pelusium,  498. 

Ithacius  of  Emerita,  372. 

Jamblichus,  147,  281,  n. 

Jerome,  296,  298,  366-7,  472  ;  life  and 
writings,  498-501. 

John  of  Antioch,  381,  382,  386-90, 
400. 

.John  of  Jerusalem,  866,  472. 

Jovian,  269,  349. 

Jovinian,  298-9. 

Julia  Domna,  141. 

Julian,  emperor,  269  ;  religious  policy, 
276-7,  278,  284,  348-9,  859;  life 
and  aims,  282-4,  285,  n. 

Julian  of  Eclanum,  471,  473. 

Julius  Africanus,  179. 

Julius  of  Rome,  343,  345. 

Justin  Martyr,  on  worship  in  the  early 
Church,  30-1,  75-6,  229  ;  on  the 
eucharist,  78-9  ;  on  Marcion,  120  ; 
Logos  doct,  202,  n.  1,  203-5  ;  as 
apologist,  84,  88,  90,  93;  life,  7, 
n.  3,  61  ;  martyrdom,  17,  44-5. 

Justina,  435. 

Justus,  followers  of,  112. 

Lactantius,  84,  157,  442-3,  444-5. 

"Lapsed,"  191-2,  251-2. 

Leo  I.,  313,  395,  396,  451,  459  ;  life 
and  writings,  505-7. 

Lerins,  convent  of,  and  Semi- Pelagian - 
ism,  486-8.     See  Contents. 

Libanius,  281. 

Libellatid,  15,  143,  n.  2. 

Liberius  of  Rome,  347. 

Licinius,  5,  145,  268. 

Liturgy,  233,  440. 

Logos  doctrine,  the  Apologists,  86-8 ; 
Justin  Martyr,  202,  n.  1,  203-5  ; 
Irenaeus,  206-7  ;  Tertullian,  207-8 ; 
Clement,  164,  166,  167,  205 ;  Origen, 
172-3,  176,  208-9 ;  the  two  Theo- 
doti  and  Artemon,  212-3  ;  Paul  of 
Samosata,  214  ;  Noetusand  Praxeas, 
215  ;  Sabellius,  216-7  ;  Alius,  324-5; 
Apollinarius,  361-2. 

Lord's  Supper,  1st  P.,  30,  75-9  ;  2nd 
P.,  229-32 ;  3rd  P.,  442-5.  Review 
516-7. 


INDEX 


537 


Lord's  Supper,  forms  of  prayer  in  con- 
nection with,  Ist  P.,  30,  76  ;  2ii(l 
P.,  230-1,  233,  239;  8rd  P., 
441-2. 

Lucian,  6,  8,  n.  2,  32,  34. 

Lucian  of  Antioch,  325-6,  327,  n.  3. 

Lyons  (and  Vienne),  churches  of,  17, 
25,  47-8,  129. 

Macarius  of  Jerusalem,  331,  342. 

Macarius  Magnes,  157. 

Macedonians,  351. 

Macedonius  of  Constantinople,  861. 

Majorianus,  406,  407. 

Mani,  262,  266. 

Manicheism,  262  f. 

Marcellus  of  Ancyra,  at  Nicsea,  832 ; 

his  views,  337,  341,  n.  ;  and  post- 

Nicene  debate,  341,  342,  843,  344, 

845,  346. 
Marcellus  of  Rome,  254. 
Marcia,  18,  141. 
Marcian,  396. 
Marcion,  and  the  Canon,  109-10 ;  life 

and  system,  119  f. 
Marcion  of  Aries,  254. 
Marcionites,  120,  122,  127. 
Marcus  Aurelius,  7,  n.  2,  17,  48. 
Marriage,  Christian  view  of  (2nd  P.), 

223-6. 
Marriage  of  the  clergy,  2nd  P.,  223-4  ; 

3rd  P.,  319-20. 
Martin  of  Tours,  296,  297,  372 ;  life 

and  works,  432-3. 
Martyrs,  how  regarded,  2nd  P.,  239  ; 

3rd  P.,  451-2. 
Maximinus,  141. 
Maximus,  269,  270,  872,  433. 
Maximus  of  Antioch,  396. 
Maximus  Tyrius,  7. 
Meletius  of  Lycopolis,  schism  of^  254, 

n.  3. 
Melito,  62,  180,  n.  1. 
Memnon  of  Ephesus,  387. 
Mensnrius,  405,  406. 
Merit,  doct  of,  227-8. 
Mesrob,  287. 
Methodius,  157,  179. 
Metropolitans,  rise  of,  310. 
Milan,  edict  of,  6,  145, 
Miltiades,  62,  180,  n.  1. 
Minor  Orders,  2ud  P.,  247-8  ;  3rd  P., 

306,  314,  315. 
Minucius  Felix,  62,  84,  157. 
Missa  ecUechumenorum,  230. 
Missa  fidelium,  231. 
Monarchianism,  Dynamical,  205,  n.  2, 

210-6.  218-9. 


Monarchianism,  Modalistic,  210,216-9 
Monasticism,  291  f. 
Monica,  461,  463. 
Monophysite  teaching,  401-8. 
Montanism,  128  £,  248. 
Montanos,  128. 

Naassenes,  112. 

Nazarenes,  21,  199,  n. 

Neo-Platonism,  146  f.,  285,  n. 

Nero,  15,  16. 

Nerva,  4. 

Nestorianism,  287,  890,  892,  454. 

Nestorius,  377-8,  881-7,  478. 

New  Testament,   Canon   o^   109-10, 

158. 
Nicene  Council,  323  f.    See  Contents. 
Nicene  Creed,   332,  864;  later  form, 

855-7. 
Nitrian  monks,  867-9. 
Noetus,  215. 

Novatian,  157,  192,  268-4. 
Novatianists,  192,  264. 
Novatus,  253. 
Numenius,  7,  146. 

Old  Testament,  Christian  attitude 
to,  1st  P.,  79,  107,  108-9 ;  2nd  P., 
158,  Irenaeus,  183-4 ;  8rd  P.,  510. 

Ophites,  111-2. 

Orange,  s.  at  (529  a.d.),  489-90. 

Orders,  Minor,  2nd  P.,  247-8  ;  3rd  P., 
306,  314,  315. 

Origen,  Logos  doct,  172-8, 176,  208-9; 
Neo-Platonic  influence  in,  156  ;  and 
allegorical  interpretation,  109,  158 
and  n.  2,  170  ;  life  and  system,  168- 
79  ;  as  judged  by  a  later  age,  364-5, 
369-70. 

Origenistic  controversies,  864  f.,  529. 

Orosius,  271,  n.  2,  472. 

Pachomius,  294. 

Pamphilus,  179. 

Pantsenus,  24,  34,  161-2. 

Papias,  59-60. 

Patriarchates,  rise  of,  311-2. 

Patrick,  apostle  of  Ireland,  287-8. 

Patripassianism,  205,  n.  2,  215. 

Paul  of  Samosata,   213-5,    325,  327, 

n.  8. 
Paulinus  of  Milan,  471. 
Paulinus  of  Nola,  318,  471,  n.  1. 
Pelagian  controversy,  468  f. 
Pelagius,  469  f.     His  positions,  477-9. 
Penitence,  public,  1st  P.,  30,  43,  81 ; 

2nd  P.,  250-1 ;  8rd  P.,  441,  455 1 
Peratica,  112. 


538 


INDEX 


Perpetua  and  Felicitas,   Acts  of,    47, 

130. 
Persecution,    141  ;  under  Decius  and 

Valerian,  142-3,  191,  195-6 ;  under 

Diocletian,  145. 
Peter  of  Alexandria,  254. 
Philip  the  Arabian,  141. 
Philo,  146,  201. 
Philostorgius,  157. 
Philostratus,  155,  n.  2,  283. 
Photinus  of  Sirmium,  345,  346. 
Pliny,  letter  to  Trajan,  16,  24-5,  29- 

30. 
Plotinus,  147,  148,  152,  154,  n.,  155 

and  n.  1. 
Plutarch,  6,  146. 
Polycarp,  and  Easter  controversy,  83, 

236 ;   and    Marcion,    120 ;    martyr- 
dom, 17,  45-6. 
Polycarpf  Epistle  of,  57-8. 
Polycrates,  236. 

Pontianus  of  Rome,  141,  180,  n.  2. 
Pontitianua,  295-6. 
Porphyry,  147,  152,  163,  n.,  154,  n., 

157. 
Post-Baptismal  Sin,  1st  P.,  79-80  ;  2nd 

P.,  227-8;  3rd  P.,  446. 
Pothinus  of  Lyons,  180,  n.  2. 
Praxeas,  129-30,  215. 
Prayer,  Public,  1st  P.,  30,  76  ;  2nd  P., 

230-1,    232-3,    239;    3rd    P.,  440, 

441-2  ;  posture  at,  235. 
Presbyters,   1st  P.,    35-8  ;  Hatch  and 

Harnack  on,  40-2  ;  2nd  P.,  241,  244, 

245,  247  ;  3rd  P.,  307-8,  311,  314, 

319,  514. 
Priesthood  of  the  clergy,  232. 
Priscillian,  371-2,  529. 
Priscillianists,  371-3. 
Proclus,  147,  285,  n. 
Proclus  of  Constantinople,  391. 
Prophets  in  the  early  Church,  32-3. 
Prosper,  486-7. 

Ptolemaeus,  108,  n.,  116,  119,  n.  2. 
Pulcheria,  270,  396. 

Qttadratus,  60. 
Quartodecimans,  236. 

Rabttlas  of  Edessa,  391,  392. 

Radagaisus,  270. 

Reader,  office  of,  40,  247. 

Regula,  74-5,  110,  159-60,  611  ;  Ori- 

gen's  use  of,  171. 
Remoboth,  304. 
Repentance,  second,  250,  457. 
Robber  Synod,  396. 
Rnfiznisof  Aquileia,  366-7,  601. 


Sabellianism,  205,  n.  2,  216-7. 

Sabellins,  216-7. 

Sacrament,  use  of  the  term  (3rd  P.), 

449. 
Sacrijicati,  143,  n.  2. 
Saints,  growing  veneration  of,  451-2. 
Salvian,  271,  n.  2,  504-5. 
Sarabaites,  304. 

Sardica,  c.  at  (343  a.d.),  344-5. 
Satan,  dominion  of,  and  the  death  of 

Christ,    view    of   Origen,    177 ;    of 

Irenaeus,  182-3. 
Saturninus,  112-3. 
Scillitan  Martyrs,  18,  46-7. 
Seleucia,  c.  at  (359  a.d.),  348. 
Semi-Arians,  336,  339,  347-52. 
Semi-Pelagians,  485  f. ;    their  scheme, 

487-8,  490-3. 
Seneca,  6,  n.,  7,  n.  2,  146. 
Sethians,  112. 

Severus,  Alexander,  141,  142,  144. 
Severus,  Septimius,  141. 
Severus,  Sulpicius,  297,  302,  503-4. 
Shepherd,  the.     See  Hermas. 
Sin,  post-baptismal,  79-80,  228,  250  f., 

290.     In  Rermas,  54,  80-1,  260. 
Siricius  of  Rome,  372,  500. 
Sirmium,  creeds  of,  347. 
Sixtus  of  Rome,  143. 
Stephen  of  Rome,  257,  259-60. 
Stylites,  305. 
Subintroductce,  224. 
Sylvester  of  Rome,  330. 
Symeon  the  Stylite,  305. 
Symraachus,  Q.  Aurelius,  280. 
Synesius,  156,  319,  320,  501-3. 
Synods,  provincial,  rise  of,  309-11. 

Tatian,  24,  61,  84,  116,  n.,  161, 
n.  2. 

Teachers  in  the  early  Church,  32-3. 

Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles.  See 
Didache. 

Telemachus,  279,  n. 

Tertullian,  and  the  Montanists,  130 ; 
Logos  doct.,  207-8  ;  on  the  Christian 
life,  221-2  ;  on  baptism,  235,  237, 
n.  2  ;  and  reception  of  penitents, 
251,  n.  1 ;  and  original  sin,  474  ; 
life  and  teaching,  84,  89,  184-9. 

Theodoret  of  Cyrus,  school  of  Antioch, 
375;  case  of  Nestorius,  382,  383, 
384,  385,  388,  390  ;  case  of  Eutyehes, 
393,  395,  396  ;  at  Chalcedon,  400-1  ; 
life  and  writings,  497-8. 

Theodoras  of  Mopsuestia,  375-6,  391, 
473,  n.  2. 

Theodosius  i.,   emperor,   269-70 ;  re- 


INDEX 


539 


ligioHS  policy,  277 ;  post-Nicene  de- 
bate, 351-2  ;  and  Ambrose,  436. 

Theodosiua  ii.,  emperor,  270;  case  of 
Nestorius,  385-92  ;  caseof  Eutyches, 
394-5  ;  and  the  Pelagian  leaders, 
473  ;  death,  396. 

Theodoti,  the  two,  212. 

Theodotus,  161,  n.  3. 

Theognis  of  Nicsea,  333. 

Theophilus  of  Alexandria,  279,  367-9. 

Theophilus  of  Antioch,  61-2,  84, 
205. 

Thurijicati,  143,  n.  2. 

Tiberius,  4. 

Timaeus  of  Antioch,  325. 

Trajan,  4,  16. 

Ulfilas,  286,  353. 
Ulpian,  141,  n. 
Ursacius,  347. 

Yal£KS|  269,  350,  351. 


Valens  of  Mursa,  347. 

Valentinian  i.,  267,  269,  349-50,  385. 

Valentinian  ii.,  269,  270. 

Valentinian  ill.,  270. 

Valentinus,  116. 

Valerian,  142-3. 

Vespasian,  15. 

Victor  of  Rome,  83,  215,  236,  313. 

Victorinus,  157. 

Vienne  (and  Lyons),  churches  of,  17, 

25,  47-8,  129. 
Vigilantius,  298-9. 
Vincentius  of  Lerins,  488,  n. 

Widows,  248. 

Worship,  public,  1st  P.,  29-30;  2nd 
P.,  229-31  ;  3rd  P.,  440-3. 

Zeno  (Emperor),  392. 
Zenobia,  213. 
Zephyrinus,  215. 
Zosimus,  472. 


ZU  3nfernaftonaf  ^^eofogtcaf  fetBrarg. 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO 

The  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament 

By  Prof.  S.  R.  DRIVER,  D.D. 

Canon  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford 

NeTi/  Edition  Revised 


Crown  8vo,  558  pages,  $2.50  net 


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'*  Canon  Driver  has  arranged  his  material  excellently,  is  succinct 
without  being  hurried  or  unclear,  and  treats  the  various  critical  prob- 
lems involved  with  admirable  fairness  and  good  judgment." 

—Prof.  C.  H.  Toy. 

"His  judgment  is  singularly  fair,  calm,  unbiassed,  and  inde- 
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"As  a  whole,  there  is  probably  no  book  in  the  English  language 
equal  to  this  '  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament' 
for  the  student  who  desires  to  understand  what  the  modern  criticism 
thinks  about  the  Bible." — Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  in  the  Outlook. 

"The  book  is  one  worthy  of  its  subject,  thorough  in  its  treat- 
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recognition  of  difficulties,  conservative  (in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word)  in  its  statement  of  results,." 

— Prof.  Henry  P.  Smith,  in  the  Magazine  of  Christian  Literature. 

* '  In  working  out  his  method  our  author  takes  up  each  book  in 
order  and  goes  through  it  with  marvelous  and  microscopic  care. 
Every  verse,  every  clause,  word  by  word,  is  sifted  and  weighed,  and 
its  place  in  the  literary  organism  decided  upon." 

—  The  Presbyterian  Quarterly. 

"  It  contains  just  that  presentation  of  the  results  of  Old  Testa- 
ment criticism  for  which  English  readers  in  this  department  have 
been  waiting.  .  .  .  The  whole  book  is  excellent;  it  will  be  found 
helpful,  characterized  as  it  is  all  through  by  that  scholarly  poise  of 
mind,  which,  when  it  does  not  know,  is  not  ashamed  to  present  de- 
grees of  probability," — New   World. 

*  .  .  .  Canon  Driver's  book  is  characterized  throughout  by 
thorough  Christian  scholarship,  faithful  research,  caution  in  the 
expression  of  mere  opinions,  candor  in  the  statement  of  facts  and  of 
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the  divine  inworking  in  the  religious  life  of  the  Hebrews,  and  of  the 
tokens  of  divine  inspiration  in  the  literature  which  records  and  em- 
bodies it," — Dr.  A.  P.  Peabody,  in  the  Cambridge  Tribune. 


THEOLOGY  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENI 

By  GEORGE  B.  STEVENS,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Systematic  Theology,  Yale  University, 


Crown  8vo,  480  pages,  $2.50  net. 


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the  student  or  teacher  who  requires  within  moderate  compass  the  gist  of 
modern  research." — The  Literary  World. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  PASTOR  AND  THE 
WORKING  CHURCH 

By  WASHINGTON  GLADDEN,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Author  of  *•  Applied  Christianity,"  "Who  Wrote  the  Bible ?"  "  Ruling 
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The  Christian  Intelligencer, 


t^t  Jnternctfionaf  t^eofogicaf  feifirarg. 

A   HISTORY  OF 

CHRISTIANITY  IN  THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE 

BY 

ARTHUR  CUSHMAN    McQIFFERT,  Ph.D.,  D.D. 

Washburn  Professor  of  Church  History  in  the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York. 


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— Dr.  George  P.  Fisher,  of  Yale  University. 

"  Pre-eminently  a  clergyman's  book;  but  there  are  many  reasons  why  it 
should  be  in  the  library  of  every  thoughtful  Christian  person.  The  style 
is  vivid  and  at  times  picturesque.  The  results  rather  than  the  processes  of 
learning  are  exhibited.  It  is  full  of  local  color,  of  striking  narrative,  and  of 
keen,  often  brilliant,  character  analysis.  It  is  an  admirable  book  for  the 
Sunday-school  teacher." — Boston  Advertiser. 

"  For  a  work  of  such  wide  learning  and  critical  accuracy,  and  which  deals 
with  so  many  difficult  and  abstruse  problems  of  Christian  history,  this  is  re- 
markably readable." — The  Independent. 

"It  is  certain  that  Professor  McGiflfert's  work  has  set  the  mark  for 
future  effort  in  the  obscure  fields  of  research  into  Christian  origin." 

— New  York  Tribune. 

"  Dr.  McGiflFert  has  produced  an  able,  scholarly,  suggestive,  and  con- 
structive work.  He  is  in  thorough  and  easy  possession  of  his  sources  and 
materials,  so  that  his  positive  construction  is  seldom  interrupted  by  citations, 
the  demolition  of  opposing  views,  or  the  irrelevant  discussion  of  subordinate 
questions." — The  Methodist  Review. 

"The  clearness,  self-consistency,  and  force  of  the  whole  impression  of 
Apostolic  Christianity  with  which  we  leave  this  book,  goes  far  to  guarantee 
its  permanent  value  and  success." — The  Exi)Ositor. 


tk  3nferfj*ttondf  t^eoto^c&t  £t6ram 

History  of  Christian  Doctrine. 

BY 

GEORGE  P.  FISHER,  D.D., 

Titus  Street  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  Yale  University* 
Crown  8vo,  583  pages,  $2.50  net. 


•*  He  gives  ample  proof  of  rare  scholarship.  Many  of  the  old  doc- 
trines are  restated  with  a  freshness,  lucidity  and  elegance  of  style 
which  make  it  a  very  readable  book," — TAe  New  York  Observer. 

"Intrinsically  this  volume  is  worthy  of  a  foremost  place  m  our 
modern  literature  .  .  .  We  have  no  work  on  the  subject  in  English 
equal  to  it,  for  variety  and  range,  clearness  of  statement,  judicious 
guidance,  and  catholicity  of  tone." — London  Nonconformist  and  Inde- 
pendento 

"  It  is  only  just  to  say  that  Dr.  Fisher  has  produced  the  best  His- 
tory of  Doctrine  that  we  have  in  English." — The  New  York  Evangelist. 

••It  is  to  me  quite  a  marvel  how  a  book  of  this  kind  (Fisher's 
•History  of  Christian  Doctrine')  can  be  written  so  accurately  to 
scale.  It  could  only  be  done  by  one  who  had  a  very  complete  com- 
mand of  all  the  periods."— Prof.  William  Sanday,  Oxford. 

••It  presents  so  many  new  and  fresh  points  and  is  so  thoroughly 
treated,  and  brings  into  view  contemporaneous  thought,  especially 
the  American,  that  it  is  a  pleasure  to  read  it,  and  will  be  an  equal 
pleasure  to  go  back  to  it  again  and  again." — Bishop  John  F.  Hurst. 

'•  Throughout  there  is  manifest  wide  reading,  careful  prepara- 
tion, spirit  and  good  judgment," — Philadelphia  Presbyterian. 

••  The  language  and  style  are  alike  delightfully  fresh  and  easy 
.  .  .  A  book  which  will  be  found  both  stimulating  and  instructive 
to  the  student  of  theology." — The  Churchman. 

"  Professor  Fisher  has  trained  the  public  to  expect  the  excellen- 
cies of  scholarship,  candor,  judicial  equipoise  and  admirable  lucidity 
and  elegance  of  style  in  whatever  comes  from  his  pen.  But  in  the 
present  work  he  has  surpassed  himself." — Prof.  J.  H.  Thayer,  of 
Harvard  Divinity  School. 

"  It  meets  the  severest  standard;  there  is  fullness  of  knowledge, 
thorough  research,  keenly  analytic  thought,  and  rarest  enrichment 
for  a  positive,  profound  and  learned  critic.  There  is  interpretative 
and  revealing  sympathy.  It  is  of  the  class  of  works  that  mark  epochs 
in  their  several  departments." — The  Outlook, 

•'  As  a  first  study  of  the  History  of  Doctrine,  Professor  Fisher's 
volume  has  the  merit  of  being  full,  accurate  and  interesting." 

— Prof.  Marcus  Dods 

"...  He  gathers  up,  reorganizes  and  presents  the  results  of 
ijavestigation  in  a  style  rarely  full  of  literary  charm." 

—  The  Interior, 


Christian  Ethics, 

By  NEWMAN  SMYTH,  D.D.,  New  Haven. 


Crown  8vo,  508  pages,  $2.50  net. 


•'  As  this  book  is  the  latest,  so  it  is  the  fullest  and  most  attractive 
treatment  of  the  subject  that  we  are  familiar  with.  Patient  and  ex- 
haustive in  its  method  of  inquiry,  and  stimulating  and  suggestive  in 
the  topic  it  handles,  we  are  confident  that  it  will  be  a  help  to  the 
task  of  the  moral  understanding  and  interpretation  of  human  life." 

—  TAg  Living  Church. 

•*  This  book  of  Dr.  Newman  Smyth  is  of  extraordinary  interest  and 
value.  It  is  an  honor  to  American  scholarship  and  American  Chris- 
tian thinking.  It  is  a  work  which  has  been  wrought  out  with  re- 
markable grasp  of  conception,  and  power  of  just  analysis,  fullness  of 
information,  richness  of  thought,  and  affluence  of  apt  and  luminous 
illustration.  Its  style  is  singularly  clear,  simple,  facile,  and  strong. 
Too  much  gratification  can  hardly  be  expressed  atthe  way  the  author 
lifts  the  whole  subject  of  ethics  up  out  of  the  slough  of  mere  natural- 
ism into  its  own  place,  where  it  is  seen  to  be  illumined  by  the  Chris- 
tian revelation  and  vision." — The  Advance. 

"  The  subjects  treated  cover  the  whole  field  of  moral  and  spiritual  re- 
lations, theoretical  and  practical,  natural  and  revealed,  individual  and  social, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical.  To  enthrone  the  personal  Christ  as  the  true  content 
of  the  ethical  ideal,  to  show  how  this  ideal  is  realized  in  Christian  conscious- 
ness and  how  applied  in  the  varied  departments  of  practical  life — these  are 
the  main  objects  of  the  book  and  no  objects  could  be  loftier." 

—  The  Congregaiionalist. 

**  The  author  has  written  with  competent  knowledge,  with  great  spiritual 
insight,  and  in  a  tone  of  devoutness  and  reverence  worthy  of  his  theme. " 

—  The  London  Independent. 

"It  is  methodical,  comprehensive,  and  readable ;  few  subdivisions, 
direct  or  indirect,  are  omitted  in  the  treatment  of  the  broad  theme,  and 
though  it  aims  to  be  an  exhaustive  treatise,  and  not  a  popular  handbook,  it 
may  be  perused  at  random  with  a  good  deal  of  suggestiveness  and  profit," 

—  The  Sunday  School  Times. 

"  It  reflects  great  credit  on  the  author,  presenting  an  exemplary  temper 
and  manner  throughout,  being  a  model  of  clearness  in  thought  and  term, 
and  containing  passages  of  exquisite  finish." — Hartford  Seminary  Record, 

"  We  commend  this  book  to  all  reading,  intelligent  men,  and  especially 
to  ministers,  who  will  find  in  it  many  fresh  suggestions." 

—Professor  A.  B.  Bruce^ 


CHRISTIAN   INSTITUTIONS. 


By  ALEXANDER  V.  G.  ALLEN,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the  Episcopal  Theological  School 
in  Cambridge. 


Crown  8vo,  577  pages,  $2.50  net. 


"  Professor  Allen's  Christian  Institutions  may  be  regarded  as  the  most 
important  permanent  contribution  which  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
of  the  United  States  has  yet  made  to  general  theological  thought.  In  a  few 
particulars  it  will  not  command  the  universal,  or  even  the  general  assent  of 
discriminating  readers  ;  but  it  will  receive,  as  it  deserves,  the  respect  and 
appreciation  of  those  who  rightly  estimate  the  varied,  learned,  and  independ- 
ent spirit  of  the  author." — 7Vie  Americatt  Journal  of  Theology. 

"  As  to  his  method  there  can  be  no  two  opinions,  nor  as  to  the  broad, 
critical,  and  appreciative  character  of  his  study.  It  is  an  immensely  sug- 
gestive, stimulating,  and  encouraging  piece  of  work.  It  shows  that  modern 
scholarship  is  not  all  at  sea  as  to  results,  and  it  presents  a  worthy  view  of  a 
great  and  noble  subject,  the  greatest  and  noblest  of  all  subjects." — The  In- 
dependent. 

"This  will  at  once  take  its  place  among  the  most  valuable  volumes  in  the 
•  International  Theological  Library,'  constituting  in  itself  a  very  complete 
epitome  both  of  general  church  history  and  of  the  history  of  doctrines. 
.  .  .  A  single  quotation  well  illustrates  the  brilliant  style  and  the  pro- 
found thought  of  the  book." — The  Bibliotheca  Sacra. 

"The  wealth  of  learning,  the  historical  spirit,  the  philosophic  grasp,  the 
loyalty  to  the  continuity  of  life,  which  everywhere  characterize  this  thorough 
study  of  the  organization,  creeds,  and  cultus  constituting  Christian  Institu- 
tion. .  .  .  However  the  reader  may  differ  with  the  conclusions  of  the 
author,  few  will  question  his  painstaking  scholarship,  judicial  temperament, 
and  catholicity  of  Christian  spirit." — The  Advance. 

"It  is  an  honor  to  American  scholarship,  and  will  be  read  by  all  who 
wish  to  be  abreast  of  the  age." — The  Lutheran  Church  Review. 

"  With  all  its  defects  and  limitations,  this  is  a  most  illuminating  and  sug- 
gestive book  on  a  subject  of  abiding  interest." — The  Christian  Intelli- 
gencer.^^ 

"  It  is  a  treasury  of  expert  knowledge,  arranged  i«  an  orderly  and  lucid 
manner,  and  more  than  ordinarily  readable.  .  .  .  It  is  controlled  by  the 
candid  and  critical  spirit  of  the  careful  historian  who,  of  course,  has  his 
convictions  and  preferences,  but  who  makes  no  claims  in  their  behalf  which 
the  facts  do  not  seem  to  warrant." — The  Congregationalist. 

"  He  writes  in  a  charming  style,  and  has  collected  a  vast  amount  of  im- 
portant material  pertaining  to  his  subject  which  can  be  found  in  no  other 
work  in  so  compact  a  form." — The  New  York  Observer. 


Apologetics ; 

Or,  Christianity  Defensively  Stated. 

By  ALEXANDER  BALMAIN   BRUCE,  D.D., 

Professor  of  Apologetics  and  New  Testament  Exegesis,  Free  Church  College* 
Glasgow;  Author  of  "  The  Training  of  the  Twelve,"  "The  Humilia- 
tion of  Christ,"  •'  The  Kingdom  of  Qod,"  etc. 


Crown  8vo,  528  pages,  $2.50  net. 


Professor  Bruce's  work  is  not  an  abstract  treatise  on  apologetics, 
but  an  apologetic  presentation  of  the  Christian  faith,  with  reference 
to  whatever  in  our  intellectual  environment  makes  faith  difficult  at 
the  present  time. 

It  addresses  itself  to  men  whose  sympathies  are  with  Christianity, 
and  discusses  the  topics  of  pressing  concern — the  burning  questions 
of  the  hour.  It  is  offered  as  an  aid  to  faith  rather  than  a  buttress  of 
received  belief  and  an  armory  of  weapons  for  the  orthodox  believer. 

'  *  The  book  throughout  exhibits  the  methods  and  the  results  of 
conscientious,  independent,  expert  and  devout  Biblical  scholarship, 
and  it  is  of  permanent  value." — T/ie  Congregationalist. 

' '  The  practical  value  of  this  book  entitles  it  to  a  place  in  the 
first  rank." — The  Independent. 

**  A  patient  and  scholarly  presentation  of  Christianity  under 
aspects  best  fitted  to  commend  it  to  'ingenuous  and  truth-loving 
minds.'  " — The  Nation. 

"The  book  is  well-nigh  indispensable  to  those  who  propose  to 
keep  abreast  of  the  times." — Western  Christian  Advocate. 

♦'Professor  Bruce  does  not  consciously  evade  any  difficulty, 
and  he  constantly  aims  to  be  completely  fair-minded.  For  this 
reason  he  wins  from  the  start  the  strong  confidence  of  the  reader." — 
Advance. 

♦•  Its  admirable  spirit,  no  less  than  the  strength  of  its  arguments, 
will  go  far  to  remove  many  of  the  prejudices  or  doubts  of  those  who 
are  outside  of  Christianity,  but  who  are,  nevertheless,  not  infidels." — 
New  York  Tribune. 

"  In  a  word,  he  tells  precisely  what  all  intelligent  persons  wish  to 
know,  and  tells  it  in  a  clear,  fresh  and  convincing  manner.  Scarcely 
anyone  has  so  successfully  rendered  the  service  of  showing  what 
the  result  of  the  higher  criticism  is  for  the  proper  understanding  of 
the  history  and  religion  of  Israel." — Andover  Review. 

"  We  have  not  for  a  long  time  taken  a  book  in  hand  that  is  more 
stimulating  to  faith.  .  .  .  Without  commenting  further,  we  repeat 
that  this  volume  is  the  ablest,  most  scholarly,  most  advanced,  and 
sharpest  defence  of  Christianity  that  has  ever  been  written.  Np 
theological  library  should  be  without  it." — Zions  Herald. 


^t  Inttrnafional  Cnfiral  Commtntat| 

on  tt)e  golg  Scriptar^s  of  i\)t  (Dlb  anb 
IXtw  Scfitamcnta. 


EDITORS'    PREFACE. 


There  are  now  before  the  public  many  Commentaries, 
written  by  British  and  American  divines,  of  a  popular  or 
homiletical  character.  T/ie  Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools^ 
the  Handbooks  for  Bible  Classes  and  Private  Students^  The 
Speaker's  Commentary^  The  Popular  Commentary  (Schaff), 
The  Expositor's  Bible^  and  other  similar  series,  have  their 
special  place  and  importance.  But  they  do  not  enter  into 
the  field  of  Critical  Biblical  scholarship  occupied  by  such 
series  of  Commentaries  as  the  Kurzgefasstes  exegetisches 
Handbuch  zum  A.  T;  De  Wette's  Kurzgefasstes  exegetisches 
Handbuch  zum  N.  T;  Meyer's  Kritisch-exegetischer  Kom- 
mentar;  Keil  and  Delitzsch's  Biblischer  Commentar  iiher  das 
A.  T.;  Lange's  Theologisch-homiletisches  Bibelwerk ;  Nowack's 
Haiidkommentar  zum  A.  T ;  Holtzmann's  Handkommentar 
zum  N.  T.  Several  of  these  have  been  translated,  edited, 
and  in  some  cases  enlarged  and  adapted,  for  the  English- 
speaking  public ;  others  are  in  process  of  translation.  But 
no  corresponding  series  by  British  or  American  divines 
has  hitherto  been  produced.  The  way  has  been  prepared 
by  special  Commentaries  by  Cheyne,  Ellicott,  Kalisch, 
Lightfoot,  Perowne,  Westcott,  and  others ;  and  the  time  has 
come,  in  the  judgment  of  the  projectors  of  this  enterprise, 
when  it  is  practicable  to  combine  British  and  American 
sgboUrs    in    the    production    of    a    critical,   comprehensive 


EDITORS     PREFACE 

Commentary  that  will  be  abreast  of  modern  biblical  scholar- 
ship, and  in  a  measure  lead  its  van. 

Messrs.  Charles  Scribner's  Sons  of  New  York,  and  Messrs. 
T.  &  T.  Clark  of  Edinburgh,  propose  to  publish  such  a 
series  of  Commentaries  on  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
under  the  editorship  of  Prof.  C.  A.  Briggs,  D.D.,  In  America, 
and  of  Prof.  S.  R.  Driver,  D.D.,  for  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  Rev.  Alfred  Plummer,  D.D.,  for  the  New  Testament, 
in  Great  Britain. 

The  Commentaries  will  be  international  and  inter-con- 
fessional, and  will  be  free  from  polemical  and  ecclesiastical 
bias.  They  will  be  based  upon  a  thorough  critical  study  of 
the  original  texts  of  the  Bible,  and  upon  critical  methods  of 
interpretation.  They  are  designed  chiefly  for  students  and 
clergymen,  and  will  be  written  in  a  compact  style.  Each 
book  will  be  preceded  by  an  Introduction,  stating  the  results 
of  criticism  upon  it,  and  discussing  impartially  the  questions 
still  remaining  open.  The  details  of  criticism  will  appear 
in  their  proper  place  in  the  body  of  the  Commentary.  Each 
section  of  the  Text  will  be  introduced  with  a  paraphrase, 
or  summary  of  contents.  Technical  details  of  textual  and 
philological  criticism  will,  as  a  rule,  be  kept  distinct  from 
matter  of  a  more  general  cha'  acter ;  and  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment the  exegetical  notes  will  be  arranged,  as  far  as 
possible,  so  as  to  be  serviceable  to  students  not  acquainted 
with  Hebrew.  The  History  of  Interpretation  of  the  Books 
will  be  dealt  with,  when  necessary,  in  the  Introductions, 
with  critical  notices  of  the  most  important  literature  of 
the  subject.  Historical  and  Archaeological  questions,  as 
well  as  questions  of  Biblical  Theology,  are  included  in  the 
plan  of  the  Commentaries,  but  not  Practical  or  Homiletica) 
Exegesis.     The  Volumes  will  constitute  a  uniform  series 


THE  INTERNATIONAL   CRITICAL  COMMENTARY, 


The    following    eminent    Scholars    are    engaged    upon    the 
Volumes  named  below  : — 

THE    OLD   TESTAMENT. 

3«nesis.  The  Rev.  T.  K.   Cheynb,  D.D.,  Oriel  Professor  of  the 

Interpretation  of  Holy  Scripture,  University  of  Oxford 

Exodus.  The  Rev.  A.  R.  S.  Kennedy,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Hebrew, 

University  of  Edinburgh. 

Leviticus.  J.  F.  Stenning,  M.A.,    Fellow  of  Wadham  College, 

Oxford,  and  the  late  Rev.  H.  A.  White,  M.A.,  Fel- 
low of  New  College,  Oxford. 

Numbers.  G.    IJuciianan    Gray,    M.A.,    Lecturer   in    Hebrew, 

Mansfield  College,  Oxford. 

Deuteronotny.         The  Rev.  S.   R.  Driver,  D.D.,  Regius  Professor  of 
Hebrew,  Oxford.  [A^Tf;  Ready. 

Joshua  The  Rev.  George  Adam  Smith,  D.D.,  Professor  of 

Hebrew,  Free  Church  College,  Glasgow. 

Judges.  The  Rev.  George  Moore,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Hebrew, 

Andover  Theological  Seminary,  Andover,  Mass. 

{^Ncnu  Ready. 

Samuel  The  Rev.  H.  P.  Smith,  D.D.,  late  Professor  of  Bibli- 

cal Histor\',  Amherst  College,  Mass.      \^N^ozv  Ready, 

Kings.  The  Rev.  Francis  Brown,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Hebrew 

and  Cognate  Languages,  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
New  York  City. 

Chronicles.  The  Rev.  Edward  L.  Curtis,  D.D.,  Professor  of  He- 

brew, Yale  University,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Ezra  and  The  Rev.  L.  W.  Batten,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Hebrew, 

Nehemiah.  P.  E.  Divinity  School,  Philadelphia. 

Psalms.  The  Rev.  Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.D.,  Edward  Rob- 

inson Professor  of  Biblical  Theology,  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  New  York. 

Proverbs.  The    Rev.  C.  H.  Toy,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Hebrew, 

Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Massachusetts. 

\A^ow   Ready. 

Job  The  Rev.  S.  R.  Driver,  D.D.,  Regius  Professor  of 

Hebrew,  Oxford. 

Isaiah.  The    Rev.  A.  B.  Davidson,  D.D  ,  LL.D.,  Professor 

of  Hebrew,  Free  Church  College,  Edinburgh. 

Jeremiah.  The    Rev.    A.   F.  Kirkpatrick.  D.D.,  Regius  Pro- 

fessor  of  Hebrew,  Cambridge.  England. 

Daniel.  The  Rev.  John  P.  Peters,  Ph.D.,  late  Professor  of 

Hebrew,  P.  E.  Divinity  School,  Philadelphia, 
now  Rector  of  St.  Michael'^  Church,  New  York 
City. 

Minor    Prophets.    W.    R.    Harper,    Ph.D.,  LLD.,  President  of  the 
University  of  Chicago,  Illinois. 


lUE  INTERHATIONAL  CRITICAL  COMHENTART-Contiiiaed. 


St.  Matthew. 
St.  Mark. 

St.  Luke. 

Harmony  of 
the  Gospels. 

Acts. 

Romans. 

Corinthians. 
Galatians. 


Bphesians 
and  Colossians. 


Philippians 
and  Philemon. 


The  Pastoral 
Epistles. 

Hebrews. 

St.  James. 

Peter  and  Jude. 


The  Epistles 
of  John. 

Revelation. 


THE   NEW   TESTAMENT. 

The  Rev.  Willoughby  C.  Allen,  M.A.,  Fellow  of 

Exeter  College,  Oxford 

The  Rev.  E.  P.  Gould,  D.D.,  Professor  of  New  Testa- 
merit  Literature,  P.  E.  Divinity  School,  Philadelphia, 

[Now  Ready. 


The  Rev.  Alfred  Plummer, 
versity  College,  Durham. 


D.D. 


Master  of  Uni- 
\_Now  Ready. 


The  Rev.  William  Sanday,  D.D.,  Lady  Margaret  Pro- 
fessor of  Divinity,  Oxford,  and  the  Rev.  Willoughby 
C.  Allen,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Exeter  College,  Oxford. 

The  Rev.  Frederick  H.  Chase,  D.D.,  Fellow  of 
Christ's  College,  Cambridge. 

The  Rev.  William  Sanday,  D.D.,  Lady  Margaret 
Professor  of  Divinity  and  Canon  of  Christ  Church, 
Oxford,  and  the  Rev.  A.  C.  Headlam,  M.A.,  Fel- 
low of  All  Souls'  College,  Oxford.  [Ncnu  Ready. 

The  Rev,  Arch.  Robertson,  D.D.,  Principal  of  King's 
College,  London. 

The  Rev.  Ernest  D.  Burton,  D.D.,  Professor  of  New 
Testament  Literature,  University  of  Chicago. 

The  Rev.  T.  K.  Abbott,  B.D.,  D.Lit.,  formerly  Pro- 
fessor  of  Biblical  Greek,  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 

[Now  Ready. 

The  Rev.  Marvin  R.  Vincent,  D.D.,  Professor  of 
Biblical  Literature,  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
New  York  City.  [Now  Ready. 

The  Rev.  Walter  Lock,  D.D.,  Warden  of  Keble 
College,  and  Dean  Ireland,  Professor  of  Exegesis, 
Oxford. 

The  Rev.  A.  Naisme,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Hebrew  in 
King's  College,  London. 

The  Rev.  James  H,  Ropes,  A.B.,  Instructor  of  New 
Testament  Criticism  in  Harvard  University. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Bigg,  D.D.  ,  Regius  Professor  of 
Ecclesiastical  History  and  Canon  of  Christ  Church, 
Oxford.  [Now  Ready. 

The  Rev.  S.  D.  F.  Salmond,  D.D.,  Principal  and 
Professor  of  Systematic  Theology,  Free  Church  Col- 
lege  Aberdeen. 

The  Rev.  Robert  H.  Charles,  D.D.,  Professor  of 
Biblical  Greek  in  the  University  of  Dublin. 


Other  engagements  will  be  announced  shortly. 


5&je  |utcvnatl0ual  ffiritlral  ®0mmetttat:g* 


"  A  decided  advance  on  all  other  commentaries^  —  The  Outlook. 


DEUTERONOMY. 

By  the   Rev.  S.   R.   DRIVER,   D.D., 

Regius  Professor  of  Hebrew,  and  Canon  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford. 


Crown  8vo.    Net,  $3.00. 


**No  one  could  be  better  qualified  than  Professor  Driver  to  write  a  critical 
and  exegetical  commentary  on  Deuteronomy.  His  previous  works  are  author- 
ities in  all  the  departments  involved;  the  grammar  and  lexicon  of  the  Hebrew 
language,  the  lower  and  higher  criticism,  as  well  as  exegesis  and  Biblical  the- 
ology; .  .  .  the  interpretation  in  this  commentary  is  careful  and  sober  in  the 
main.  A  wealth  of  historical,  geographical,  and  philological  information  illus- 
trates and  elucidates  both  the  narrative  and  the  discourses.  Valuable,  though 
concise,  excursuses  are  often  given."  —  The  Congregationalist. 

"  It  is  a  pleasure  to  see  at  last  a  really  critical  Old  Testament  commentary 
in  English  upon  a  portion  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  especially  one  of  such  merit. 
This  I  find  superior  to  any  other  Commentary  in  any  language  upon  Deuter- 
onomy." —  Professor  E,  L.  Curtis,  of  Yale  University. 

"  This  volume  of  Professor  Driver's  is  marked  by  his  well-known  care  and 
accuracy,  and  it  will  be  a  great  boon  to  every  one  who  wishes  to  acquire  a 
thorough  knowledge,  either  of  the  Hebrew  language,  or  of  the  contents  of  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy,  and  their  significance  for  the  development  of  Old  Tes- 
tament thought.  The  author  finds  scope  for  displaying  his  well-known  wide 
and  accurate  knowledge,  and  delicate  appreciation  of  the  genius  of  the 
Hebrew  language,  and  his  readers  are  supplied  with  many  carefully  con- 
structed lists  of  words  and  expressions.  He  is  at  his  best  in  the  detailed 
examination  of  the  text." — London  Athentsum. 

"  It  must  be  said  that  this  work  is  bound  to  take  rank  among  the  best  com- 
mentaries in  any  language  on  the  important  book  with  which  it  deals.  On 
every  page  there  is  abundant  evidence  of  a  scholarly  knowledge  of  the  litera- 
ture, and  of  the  most  painstaking  care  to  make  the  book  useful  to  thorough 
students."  —  The  Lutheran  Churchman. 

**  The  deep  and  difficult  questions  raised  by  Deuteronomy  are,  in  every  in- 
stance, considered  with  care,  insight,  and  critical  acumen.  The  student  who 
wishes  for  solid  information,  or  a  knowledge  of  method  and  temper  of  the 
new  criticism,  will  find  advantage  in  consulting  the  pages  of  Dr.  Driver."  — 
Zien's  Herald. 


gUt  %nUxnKtxonKl  ©trttical  (£iommmUxi^. 


"  Wi  believe  this  series  to  be  of  epoch-making  importanceV 

—  The  N.  Y.  Evangelist. 

* 


JUDGES. 


By  Dr.  GEORGE  FOOT  MOORE, 

Professor  of  Hebrew  in  Andover  Theological  Seminary. 


Crown  8vo.    Net,  $3.00. 


"  The  typographical  execution  of  this  handsome  volume  is  worthy  of  the 
scholarly  character  of  the  contents,  and  higher  praise  could  not  be  given  it." 
—  Professor  C.  H.  Toy,  of  Harvard  University. 

*'  This  work  represents  the  latest  results  of  '  Scientific  Biblical  Scholarship,' 
and  as  such  has  the  greatest  value  for  the  purely  critical  student,  especially  on 
the  side  of  textual  and  literary  criticism."  —  Tke  Church  Standard. 

"  Professor  Moore  has  more  than  sustained  his  scholarly  reputation  in  this 
work,  which  gives  us  for  the  first  time  in  English  a  commentary  on  Judges  not 
excelled,  if  indeed  equalled,  in  any  language  of  the  world."  —  Professor 
L.  W.  Batten,  of  P.  E.  Divinity  School,  Philadelphia. 

"  Although  a  critical  commentary,  this  work  has  i.s  practical  uses,  and  by 
its  divisions,  headlines,  etc.,  it  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  wants  of  all 
thoughtful  students  of  the  Scriptures.  Indeed,  with  the  other  books  of  the 
series,  it  is  sure  to  find  its  way  into  the  hands  of  pastors  and  scholarly  lay- 
men."—  Portland  Zion's  Herald. 

"  Like  its  predecessors,  this  volume  will  be  warmly  welcomed  —  whilst  to 
those  whose  means  of  securing  up-to-date  information  on  the  subject  of  which 
it  treats  are  limited,  it  is  simply  invaluable."  —  Edinburgh  Scotsman. 

"  The  work  is  done  in  an  atmosphere  of  scholarly  interest  and  indifference 
to  dogmatism  and  controversy,  which  is  at  least  refreshing.  ...  It  is  a  noble 
introduction  to  the  moral  forces,  ideas,  and  influences  that  controlled  the 
period  of  the  Judges,  and  a  model  of  what  a  historical  commentary,  wifch  a 
practical  end  in  view  should  be."  —  The  Independent. 

"  The  work  is  marked  by  a  clear  and  forcible  style,  by  scholarly  research,  by 
critical  acumen,  by  extensive  reading,  and  by  evident  familiarity  with  the 
Hebrew.  Many  of  the  comments  and  suggestions  are  valuable,  while  the 
index  at  the  close  is  serviceable  and  satisfactory."  —  Philadelphia  Presbyterian. 

"  This  volume  sustains  the  reputation  of  the  series  for  accurate  and  wide 
scholarship  given  in  clear  and  strong  English,  .  .  .  the  scholarly  reader  will 
find  delight  in  the  perusal  of  this  admirable  commentary."  —  Zion's  Herald. 


ZU  3nfernationaf  Criticaf  Commentary. 

** Richly  helpful  to  scholars  and  ministers." — The  Presbyterian  Banner. 

The  Books  of  Samuel 

BY 

REV.  HENRY  PRESERVED  SMITH. 

Professor  of  Biblical  History  and  Interpretation  in  A  mherst  CcHege, 


Crown  8vo,  Net  $3.00. 


"Professor  Smith's  Commentary  will  for  some  time  be  the  standard 
work  on  Samuel,  and  we  heartily  congratulate  him  on  scholarly  work  s^ 
faithfully  accomplished." — The  Athenceum. 

**  It  is  both  critical  and  exegetical,  and  deals  with  original  Hebrew  and 
Greek.  It  shows  painstaking  diligence  and  considerable  research." — The 
Presbyterian. 

"  The  style  is  clear  and  forcible  and  sustains  the  well- won  reputation  of 
the  distinguished  author  for  scholarship  and  candor.  All  thoughtful  stu- 
dents of  the  Scriptures  will  find  the  work  helpful,  not  only  on  account  of  its 
specific  treatment  of  the  Books  of  Samuel,  on  which  it  is  based,  but  because 
of  the  light  it  throws  on  and  the  aid  it  gives  in  the  general  interpretation  of 
the  Scriptures  as  modified  by  present-day  criticism." — The  Philadelphia 
Press. 

*'  The  literary  quality  of  the  book  deserves  mention.  We  do  not  usually 
go  to  commentaries  for  models  of  English  style.  But  this  book  has  a  dis- 
tinct, though  unobtrusive,  literary  flavor.  It  is  delightful  reading.  The 
translation  is  always  felicitous,  and  often  renders  further  comment  need- 
less."—  The  Evangelist. 

"The  treatment  is  critical,  and  at  the  same  time  expository.  Conserva- 
tive students  may  find  much  in  this  volume  with  which  they  cannot  agree, 
but  no  one  wishing  to  know  the  most  recent  conclusions  concerning  this 
part  of  sacred  history  can  afford  to  be  without  it." — Philadelphia  Presby- 
terian Journal. 

"The  author  exhibits  precisely  that  scholarly  attitude  which  will  com- 
mend his  work  to  the  widest  audience." — The  Churchman. 

"The  commentary  is  the  most  complete  and  minute  hitherto  published 
by  an  English-speaking  scholar." — Literature. 

"The  volumes  of  Driver  and  Moore  set  a  high  standard  for  the  Old 
Testament  writers ;  but  I  think  Professor  Smith's  work  has  reached  the 
same  high  level.  It  is  scholarly  and  critical,  and  yet  it  is  written  in  a  spirit 
of  reverent  devotion,  a  worthy  treatment  of  the  sacred  text." — Prof.  L.  W. 
Batten,  of  P.  E.  Divinity  School,  Philadelphia. 


"  JVg  deem  it  as  needful  for  the  studious  pastor  to  possess  himself 
of  these  volumes  as  to  obtain  the  best  dictionary  and  encyclopedia'' 

— The  Congregationaust. 


ST.  MARK. 


By  the  Rev.  E.  P.  GOULD,  D.D., 

Professor  of  New  Testament  Exegesis,  P.  E.  Divinity  School,  Philadelphia. 


Crown  8vo.    Net,  $2.50. 


**  In  point  of  scholarship,  of  accuracy,  of  originality,  this  last  addition  to  the 
series  is  worthy  of  its  predecessors,  while  for  terseness  and  keenness  of  exegesis, 
we  should  put  it  first  of  them  all."  —  The  Congregatiojialist. 

"The  whole  make-up  is  that  of  a  thoroughly  helpful,  instructive  critical 
study  of  the  Word,  surpassing  anything  of  the  kind  ever  attempted  in  the 
English  language,  and  to  students  and  clergymen  knowing  the  proper  use  of 
a  commentary  it  will  prove  an  invaluable  aid."  —  The  Lutheran  Quarterly. 

"  Professor  Gould  has  done  his  work  well  and  thoroughly.  .  .  .  The  com- 
mentary is  an  admirable  example  of  the  critical  method  at  its  best.  .  .  .  The 
Word  study  .  .  .  shows  not  only  familiarity  with  all  the  literature  of  the  sub- 
ject, but  patient,  faithful,  and  independent  investigation.  ...  It  will  rank 
among  the  best,  as  it  is  the  latest  commentary  on  this  basal  Gospel."  —  The 
Christian  Intelligencer. 

"  It  will  give  the  student  the  vigorously  expressed  thought  of  a  very  thought- 
ful scholar."  —  The  Church  Standard. 

"  Dr.  Gould's  commentary  on  Mark  is  a  large  success,  .  .  .  and  a  credit  to 
American  scholarship.  .  .  .  He  has  undoubtedly  given  us  a  commentary  on 
Mark  which  surpasses  all  others,  a  thing  we  have  reason  to  expect  will  be  true 
in  the  case  of  every  volume  of  the  series  to  which  it  belongs."  —  The  Biblical 
World. 

"The  volume  is  characterized  by  extensive  learning,  patient  attention  to 
details  and  a  fair  degree  of  caution."  —  Bibliotheca  Sacra. 

"  The  exegetical  portion  of  the  book  is  simple  in  arrangement,  admirable 
in  form  and  condensed  in  statement.  .  .  .  Dr.  Gould  does  not  slavishly  follow 
any  authority,  but  expresses  his  own  opinions  in  language  both  concise  and 
clear."  —  The  Chicago  Standard. 

"  In  clear,  forcible  and  elegant  language  the  author  furnishes  the  results  of 
the  best  investigations  on  the  second  Gospel,  both  early  and  late.  He  treats 
these  various  subjects  with  the  hand  of  a  master."  —  Boston  Zion's  Herald. 

"The  author  gives  abundant  evidence  of  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 
facts  and  history  in  the  case.  .  .  .  His  treatment  of  them  is  always  fresh  and 
scboVarly,  and  oftentimes  helpful."  —  The  New  York  Observer. 


"  //  ts  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  this  series  will  stand  first 
among  all  English  serial  commentaries  on  the  Bible T 

—  The  Biblical  World. 


ST.  LUKE. 

By  the  Rev.  ALFRED  PLUnHER,  D.D., 

Master  of  University  College,  Durham.     Formerly  Fellow  and  Senior  Tutor  of 
Trinity  College,  Oxford. 


Crown  8vo.    Net,  $3.00. 


In  the  author's  Critical  Introduction  to  the  Commentary  is  contained  a  full 
treatment  of  a  large  number  of  important  topics  connected  with  the  study  of 
the  Gospel,  among  which  are  the  following  :  The  Author  of  the  Book  —  The 
Sources  of  the  Gospel  —  Object  and  Plan  of  the  Gospel  —  Characteristics, 
Style  and  Language  —  The  Integrity  of  the  Gospel  —  The  Text  —  Literary 
History. 

FROM  THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

If  this  Commentary  has  any  special  features,  they  will  perhaps  be  found  in 
the  illustrations  from  Jewish  writings,  in  the  abundance  of  references  to  the 
Septuagint,  and  to  the  Acts  and  other  books  of  the  New  Testament,  in  the 
frequent  quotations  of  renderings  in  the  Latin  versions,  and  in  the  attention 
which  has  been  paid,  both  in  the  Introduction  and  throughout  the  Notes,  to 
the  marks  of  St.  Luke's  style. 

"  It  is  distinguished  throughout  by  learning,  sobriety  of  judgment,  and 
sound  exegesis.  It  is  a  weighty  contribution  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
Third  Gospel,  and  will  take  an  honorable  place  in  the  series  of  which  it  forms 
a  part."  —  Prof.  D.  D.  Salmond,  in  the  Critical  Review. 

"  We  are  pleased  with  the  thoroughness  and  scientific  accuracy  of  the  inter- 
pretations. ...  It  seems  to  us  that  the  prevailing  characteristic  of  the  book 
is  common  sense,  fortified  by  learning  and  piety."  —  The  Herald  and  Presbyter. 

"An  important  work,  which  no  student  of  the  Word  of  God  can  safely 
neglect."—  The  Church  Standard. 

"The  author  has  both  the  scholar's  knowledge  and  the  scholar's  spirit 
necessary  for  the  preparation  of  such  a  commentary.  .  .  .  We  know  of 
nothing  on  the  Third  Gospel  which  more  thoroughly  meets  the  wants  of  the 
Biblical  scholar."  —  The  Outlook. 

"  The  author  is  not  only  a  profound  scholar,  but  a  chastened  and  reverent 
Christian,  who  undertakes  to  interpret  a  Gospel  of  Christ,  so  as  to  show 
Christ  in  his  grandeur  and  loveliness  of  character."  —  The  Southern  Church- 
man. 

"  It  is  a  valuable  and  welcome  addition  to  our  somewhat  scanty  stock  of 
first-class  commentaries  on  the  Third  Gospel.  By  its  scholarly  thoroughness 
it  well  sustains  the  reputation  which  the  International  Series  Has  already 
won."  —  Prof.  J.  H.  Thayer,  of  Harvard  University. 

This  volume  having  been  so  recently  published,  further  notices  are  not  yet 
available. 


^feje  %nUnxntwnnl  ffiritiral  ®0mmeutar}j. 

^^  For  the  student  this  new  commentary  promises  to  be  indispen- 
sable''—  The  Methodist  Recorder. 


ROMANS. 

By  the  Rev.  WILLIAM  SANDAY,  D.D., 

Lady  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity,  and  Canon  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 


Rev.  A.  C.  HEADLAH,  M.A., 

Fellow  of  All  Souls'  College,  Oxford. 


Crown  8vo.    Net,  $3.00. 


"  From  my  knowledge  of  Dr.  Sanday,  and  from  a  brief  examination  of  the 
book,  I  am  led  to  believe  that  it  is  our  best  critical  handbook  to  the  Epistle. 
It  combines  great  learning  with  practical  and  suggestive  interpretation."  — 
Professor  George  B.  Stevens,  of  Yale  University. 

"  Professor  Sanday  is  excellent  in  scholarship,  and  of  unsurpassed  candor. 
The  introduction  and  detached  notes  are  highly  interesting  and  instructive. 
This  commentary  cannot  fail  to  render  the  most  valuable  assistance  to  all 
earnest  students.  The  volume  augurs  well  for  the  series  of  which  it  is  a  mem- 
ber."—  Professor  George  P.  Fisher,  of  Yale  University. 

"The  scholarship  and  spirit  of  Dr.  Sanday  give  assurance  of  an  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  which  will  be  both  scholarly  and  spiritual." 
—  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott. 

"  The  work  of  the  authors  has  been  carefully  done,  and  will  prove  an 
acceptable  addition  to  the  literature  of  the  great  Epistle.  The  exegesis  is 
acute  and  learned  .  .  .  The  authors  show  much  familiarity  with  the  work 
of  their  predecessors,  and  write  with  calmness  and  lucidity."  —  New  York 
Observer. 

"  We  are  confident  that  this  commentary  will  find  a  place  in  every  thought- 
ful minister's  library.  One  may  not  be  able  to  agree  with  the  authors  at  some 
points,  —  and  this  is  true  of  all  commentaries,  —  but  they  have  given  us  a  work 
which  cannot  but  prove  valuable  to  the  critical  study  of  Paul's  masterly  epis- 
tle." —  Zion^s  Advocate. 

"  We  do  not  hesitate  to  commend  this  as  the  best  commentary  on  Romans 
yet  written  in  English.  It  will  do  much  to  popularize  this  admirable  and 
much  needed  series,  by  showing  that  it  is  possible  to  be  critical  and  scholarly 
and  at  the  same  time  devout  and  spiritual,  and  intelligible  to  plain  Bible 
readers."  —  The  Church  Standard. 

"A  commentary  with  a  very  distinct  character  and  purpose  of  its  own, 
which  brings  to  students  and  ministers  an  aid  which  they  cannot  obtain  else- 
where. .  .  .  There  is  probably  no  other  commentary  in  which  criticism  has 
been  employed  so  successfully  and  impartially  to  bring  out  the  author's 
thought."  —  N.  Y.  Independent. 

"We  have  nothing  but  heartiest  praise  for  the  weightier  matters  of  the 
commentary.  It  is  not  only  critical,  but  exegetical,  expository,  doctrinal, 
practical,  and  eminently  spiritual.  The  positive  conclusions  of  the  books  are 
very  numerous  and  are  stoutly,  gloriously  evangelical.  .  .  .  The  commentary 
does  not  fail  to  speak  with  the  utmost  revereace  of  the  whole  word  of  God." 
The  Congrttgationalist 


Tite  iutctmational  &xxticnl  ©ommentara. 


''This  admirable  series:' — The  London  Academy. 


EPHESIANS  AND  COLOSSIANS. 

By  the  Rev.  T.  K.  ABBOTT,  B.D.,  D.  Litt. 

Formerly  Professor  of  Biblical  Greek,  now  of  Hebrew,  Trinity  College, 

Dublin. 


Crown  8vo.    Net,  $2.50. 


**  The  latest  volume  of  this  admirable  series  is  informed  with  the  very 
best  spirit  in  which  such  work  can  be  carried  out — a  spirit  of  absolute 
fidelity  to  the  demonstrable  truths  of  critical  science.  .  ,  .  This  summary 
of  the  results  of  modern  criticism  applied  to  these  two  Pauline  letters  is, 
for  the  use  of  scholarly  students,  not  likely  to  be  superseded." — The  Lon- 
don A  cade 7)1  y. 

"  An  able  and  independent  piece  of  exegesis,  and  one  that  none  of  us  can 
afford  to  be  without.  It  is  the  work  of  a  man  who  has  made  himself  mas- 
ter of  his  theme.  His  linguistic  ability  is  manifest.  His  style  is  usually 
clear.  His  exegetical  perceptions  are  keen,  and  we  are  especially  grateful 
for  his  strong  defence  of  the  integrity  and  apostolicity  of  these  two  great 
monuments  of  Pauline  teaching." — The  Expositor. 

"It  displays  every  mark  of  conscientious  judgment,  wide  reading,  and 
grammatical  insight. " — Litcraticre. 

"  In  discrimination,  learning,  and  candor,  it  is  the  peer  of  the  other  vol- 
umes of  the  series.  The  elaborate  introductions  are  of  special  value." — 
Professor  George  B.  Stevens,  of  Yale  University. 

"  It  is  rich  in  philological  material,  clearly  arranged,  and  judiciously 
handled.  The  studies  of  words  are  uncommonly  good.  ...  In  the 
balancing  of  opinions,  in  the  distinguishing  between  fine  shades  of  mean- 
ing, it  is  both  acute  and  sound." — The  Church. 

"  The  exegesis  based  so  solidly  on  the  rock  foundation  of  philology  is 
argumentatively  and  convincingly  strong.  A  spiritual  and  evangelical  tenor 
pervades  the  interpretation  from  first  to  last.  .  .  .  These  elements,  to- 
gether with  the  author's  full-orbed  vision  of  the  truth,  with  his  discrimina- 
tive judgment  and  his  felicity  of  expression,  make  this  the  peer  of  any  com- 
mentary on  these  important  letters." — The  Standard. 

"  An  exceedingly  careful  and  painstaking  piece  of  work.  The  introduc- 
tory discussions  of  questions  bearing  on  the  authenticity  and  integrity  (of 
the  epistles)  are  clear  and  candid,  and  the  exposition  of  the  text  displays  a 
fine  scholarship  and  insight." — Northwestern  Christian  Advocate. 

"The  book  is  from  first  to  last  exegetical  and  critical.  Every  phrase  in 
the  two  ?2pistles  is  searched  as  with  lighted  candles.  The  authorities  for 
variant  readings  are  canvassed  but  weighed,  rather  than  counted.  The  mul- 
tiform ancient  and  modern  interpretations  are  investigated  with  the  ex- 
haustiveness  of  a  German  lecture-room,  and  the  judicial  spirit  of  an  English 
court-room.  Special  discussions  are  numerous  and  thorough." — The  Con- 
gregationalist. 


2^e  3nterMttondf  Cxiiicat  Commentary. 


"/  have  already  expressed  my  conviction  that  the  Inter- 
national Critical  Commentary  is  the  best  critical  commentary. 
on  the  whole  Bible,  in  existence." — Dr.  Lyman  Abbott., 

Philippians  and  Philemon 

BY 
REV.  MARVIN  R.  VINCENT,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Biblicat  Literature  in   Union   Theological  Seminary,  New   York, 


Crown  8vo,  Net  $2.00. 


*'It  is,  in  short,  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  series." — The  Scotsman. 

"  Professor  Vincent's  Commentary  on  Philippians  and  Philemon  appears 
to  me  not  less  admirable  for  its  literary  merit  than  for  its  scholarship  and  its 
clear  and  discriminating  discussions  of  the  contents  of  these  Epistles." — Dr. 
George  P.  Fisher. 

"The  book  contains  many  examples  of  independent  and  judicial  weigh- 
ing of  evidence.  We  have  been  delighted  with  the  portion  devoted  to  Phile- 
mon. Unlike  most  commentaries,  this  may  wisely  be  read  as  a  whole." — 
The  Congregationalist 

"Of  the  merits  of  the  work  it  is  enough  to  say  that  it  is  worthy  of  its 
place  in  the  noble  undertaking  to  which  it  belongs.  It  is  ful.'  of  just  such 
information  as  the  Bible  student,  lay  or  clerical,  needs ;  and  while  giving  an 
abundance  of  the  truths  of  erudition  to  aid  the  critical  student  of  the  text,  it 
abounds  also  in  that  more  popular  information  which  enables  the  attentive 
reader  almost  to  put  himself  in  St.  Paul's  place,  to  see  with  the  eyes  and  feel 
with  the  heart  of  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles." — Boston  Advertiser. 

"If  it  is  possible  in  these  days  to  produce  a  commentary  which  will  be 
free  from  polemical  and  ecclesiastical  bias,  the  feat  will  be  accomplished  in 
the  International  Critical  Commentary.  .  .  .  It  is  evident  that  the  writer 
has  given  an  immense  amount  of  scholarly  research  and  original  thought  to 
the  subject.  .  .  .  The  author's  introduction  to  the  Epistle  to  Philemon 
is  an  admirable  piece  of  literature,  calculated  to  arouse  in  the  student's  mind 
an  intense  interest  in  the  circumstances  which  produced  this  short  letter  from 
the  inspired  Apostle." — Commercial  Advertiser. 

"  His  discussion  of  Philemon  is  marked  by  sympathy  and  appreciation, 
and  his  full  discussion  of  the  relations  of  Pauline  Christianity  to  slavery  are 
interesting,  both  historically  and  sociologically." — The  Dial. 

"  Throughout  the  work  scholarly  research  is  evident.  It  commends  itself 
by  its  clear  elucidation,  its  keen  exegesis  which  marks  the  word  study  on 
every  page,  its  compactness  of  statement  and  its  simplicity  of  arrRngement. " 
— Lutheran  World. 

"  The  scholarship  of  the  author  seems  to  be  fully  equal  to  his  i  dertaking, 
and  he  has  given  to  us  a  fine  piece  of  work.  One  cannot  but  se  that  if  the 
entire  series  shall  be  executed  upon  a  par  with  this  portion,  thei  lan  be  lit- 
tle left  to  be  desired." — Philadelphia  Presbyterian  Journal. 


Z^c  3nfernafionaf  Crificaf  Commenfarg. 


"  A  decided  advance  on  all  other  commentaries." — T/ie  Outlook. 


PROVERBS 

By  the  Rev.  CRAWFORD   H.  TOY,  D.D 

Professor  of  Hebrew  in  Harvard  University. 


Crown  8vo.    Net,  $3.00. 


"This  volume  has  the  same  characteristics  of  thoroughness  and 
painstaking  scholarship  as  the  preceding  issues  of  the  series.  In  the 
critical  treatment  of  the  text,  in  noting  the  various  readings  and  the 
force  of  the  words  in  the  original  Hebrew,  it  leaves  nothing  to  be  de- 
sired."—  The  Christian  Intelligencer. 

"  In  careful  scholarship  this  volume  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired.  Its 
interpretation  is  free  from  theological  prejudice.  It  will  be  indispen- 
sable to  the  careful  student,  whether  lay  or  clerical." — The  Outlook. 


ST.  PETER  AND  ST.  JUDE 

By  the  Rev.  CHARLES  BIGG,  D.D. 

Rector  of  Fenny  Camp  ton.  Canon  of  Christ  Church,  and  Regius  Professor 
of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 


Crown  8vo.    Net,  2.50.    (Postage,  i8c.) 


This  is  the  latest  volume  of "  The  International  Critical  Commen- 
tary "  which  has  been  published.  The  treatment  is  not  only  critical,  but 
expository,  exegetical  and  practical.  The  introductions  and  notes  are 
highly  instructive,  and  thoughtful  students  of  the  Scriptures  will  find 
this  work  helpful  and  suggestive. 


"  His  commentary  is  very  satisfactory  indeed.  His  notes  are  par- 
ticularly valuable.  We  know  of  no  work  on  these  Epistles  which  is  so 
full  and  satisfactory." — The  Living  Church. 

"  It  shows  an  immense  amount  of  research  and  acquaintanceship 
with  the  views  of  the  critical  school." — Herald  and  Presbyter. 

"  This  volume  well  sustains  the  reputation  achieved  by  its  predeces- 
sors. The  notes  to  the  text,  as  well  as  the  introductions,  are  marked 
by  erudition  at  once  affluent  and  discriminating." — The  Outlook, 


n  ^    /     / 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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University  of  California 

Berkeley 


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